I knew nothing about Pure Protein when the EP came my way but I'm a fan now. The self-released Winner Goes Home EP drops on Friday and it's full of the kind of thing we'd call dream-pop. I am not sure how M.W. Powell would feel about that, but he makes music that is as blissfully tripped out as lots of that loosely-defined genre.
At his best, like on the catchy "Molly Urethane", there's a blending of stuff like early R.E.M. and Wire Train with the riffs of a Tame Impala record. Elsewhere, "Julia" is a bit like something from any number of bands who want to pretend to be modern Ride, even as the title song here revs up like the earliest numbers from Lilys, or more recent ones from Papercuts. Closer "Dog Hill" is fairly conventional, and on this one Powell forgoes any kind of washed-out hook for more direct ones. His press materials mention how this material is an extension of the Nineties stuff from Goo Goo Dolls and Gin Blossoms, for example, and, on this one at least, that seems nearly right.
Winner Goes Home is out on Friday.
More details on Pure Protein via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Pure Protein]