2nd Grade: Easy Listening (2022)

Damn, the late summer/early fall season is turning into a feast of excellent new releases. Add the new one from Philadelphia indie pop act 2nd Grade to the pile!

Their 2020 debut long-player, Hit To Hit, was a throwback to classic Guided By Voices, but with a much greater debt to power pop (and even bubblegum)--24 rapid-fire, lo-fi-ish nuggets, often taking a minute or less to lay down a clever lyric and killer hook and move on to the next one. It was a mix of easy smiles and castaways, with a fe...