This is a record that lands somewhere between power pop and pop punk, with a little bit more of an indie aesthetic than most pop punk, and a dose of twee. People who follow this kind of music more than me tell me the twee is a little bit innovative, but twee power pop is quite an old thing…

However, I may not have heard this exact combination of (restrained) twee with as much muscle as this, at least recently. The group is a duo but, due to the wonder of studio technology, sound bigger and louder than their size on many tracks, due to guitar overdubs, backing vocal overdubs, and the drums playing a major part in the mix.

Luciano is an appealing performer and has enough charisma to carry a record. I do think seeing them live would be mixed bag because of how relatively full they often sound here and they clearly wouldn’t live (without triggered samples) but Luciano might be able to overcome that.

As others have noted, the biggest issue if any of these similar musical genres is your thing is a lack of strong songs. It does feel like the record mostly rests on Luciano’s charisma rather than the songs.

Anyway, it’s perfectly fine energy wise. This kind of music needs energy and personality and this record has both. But it’s something I can forget pretty soon after listening to it because, for energy without songs to work, the energy has to be incredible.

6/10