Album Review – Easy Listening by 2nd Grade (2022) (Double Double Whammy)
Power-pop brevity is unlikely to get much better than Easy Listening, the third full length from Philadelphia quintet, 2nd Grade.
Here they continue to carefully select the best that the 70s/80s/90s bestowed upon on the genre and add just enough of A here and now energy to make the sound just as relevant to todays young as it might be to a legion of Paisley shirt wearing middle-aged fans.
Never needing to drift much past the ‘perfect pop record’ parameters of two minutes, Hung Up, Hand of The Band, Keith and Telecaster and Hands Down nibble at both Big Star jangly power pop and the slightly more driven textures of the 90s Teenage Fanclub aesthetic. Each one an absolute ear-worm, they are an total testamount to an act that seems to find the ‘perfect single’ with consummate ease.
In comparison to previous release, perhaps the grit has been stepped up just a tad on Easy Listening. Cover of Rolling Stone, Beat of the Drum, Teenage Overpopulation and Which Itch are You Scratching Today, whilst still very much within the realms of jangly power-pop, just add a sense of controlled garage rock mania, that back in the day might have seen me thrashing around my bedroom and contributing to the knee replacement and hernia’s that life eventually bestowed upon me.
2nd Grade are true power-pop alchemists. Turning elements of the genre’s yesterday into absolute moments of todays gold.
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