(Bar None)
It’s the rare artist that puts forth their best album nearly a dozen years in. Working alongside producer Mo Troper, Diners’ project leader Blue Broderick delivers her best album yet on her Bar None Records debut, DOMINO. Ten songs of nostalgia-laced bubblegum pop rush by in under thirty minutes. Chock full of hook-filled choruses, scruffy harmonies, fuzzed-out guitar solos, and perfectly executed bridges, it’s impossible not to instantly fall in love with DOMINO’s charms. Though rooted in sunny sixties pop, more modern purveyors also come to mind. So What echoes Nick Lowe at his punchiest and the wistful Someday I’ll Go Surfing recalls Marshall Crenshaw’s carefree melodies. The album’s pace slows a bit as it goes, but sentimental ballads like I Don’t Think About You The Way I Used To and Your Eyes Look Like Christmas, which would fit nicely in Brian Wilson’s catalog, give way to the country lilt of the winning Wisdom at the close. Broderick’s forebears rattled off perfect pop songs in their sleep, and it seems she has found the formula to do the same.
22 September, 2023 – 00:01 — Mark Moody