I already wrote about these dudes in my mid-year top 5 since Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records released a compilation of their early digital singles back in April, and here they are following it up with a 12-song album of all new material! This second release proves Long Beach’s Softjaw have a masters in powerpop from the school of rock. I’m not about to define powerpop as it seems to mean different things to different people but to me personally I can usually hear what I interpret as an appreciation for The Beatles which I can definitely hear here. For the non Beatles fans though this could just as easily be considered ‘hard rock’ (assuming you call Cheap Trick hard rock and not power pop;) I mentioned pastiche in the last review I wrote but have to say again there’s nothing wrong with borrowing liberally from your heroes if you’re recycling and recontextualizing those riffs, melodies and production tricks into brand new butt kicking tunes!
Love Can’t Kill You hits the ground running with a guitar riff that could be from a (good) Motley Crüe song. It’s definitely not metal but has a certain heaviness with its Thin Lizzy-esque guitarmonies, played by songwriting duo Dustin Lovelis and Tanner Duffy, that the heads will likely appreciate. Latest single “Poor Disguise” has earworm melodies with backing vocal arrangements and harmonies like a (good) song by The Raspberries. Later we get “Million Different People” which is an honestly great stab at a Big Star style ballad which I’m also pretty sure borrows a melody from that band The Beach Boys. And if that’s too obvious for you music nerds, maybe you’ll be more impressed by the album closer “Flying High” where you might catch a whiff of a riff borrowed from obscure early 70s Beatles worshippers Rockin’ Horse!
Honestly tho, who doesn’t borrow ideas from the Beatles? I’m sure all of the original LA power pop groups like The Nerves, The Knack, and 20/20 were guilty as charged so there’s definite precedent. Softjaw (albeit with a different rhythm section at the time) even backed up the king Paul Collins on a California tour in 2024. To use some major cliches these dudes aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel and they wear their influences on their sleeves but that’s a-ok with me. Every song on here is better than the blues-boner jam that Paul McCartney wrote with the surviving members of Nirvana. You can google “Cut Me Some Slack” if you don’t believe me or take my word for it, do yourself a favour and check this out instead.
