Yes, this record did come out over two months ago. Yes, we did skate over its release. Yes, we did forget to cover it. And yes, we do regret that. However, what is actually really awesome about saving this particular review for this particular issue is that we get to highlight that this truly amazing gaggle of guys who make ridiculously good music are from our home state. Hailing for Grand Rapids to be exact, this quintet released their full-length debut back in June and if it flew over your radar like it did ours, you're going to want to run like hell to your laptop and download all 12 tracks STAT. It's like...it's like everything electronic music should be and...everything it isn't. It's unexpected, contagiously fun and absurdly well done. Coined as "8-bit power pop," the genre they're aiming at is hard to pin down. They kind of sound like Passion Pit and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. had a baby. And they were listening to The Postal Service during conception. But that baby, whew, it has a severe case of A.D.D. In, like, the best possible way. Strange and eclectic, songs like "My Leather, My Fur, My Nails" (which on their original EP Ordinaire) have probably one of the strangest set of lyrics I've heard in a long while. And at the same time, it's the probably the best track on the record. Also remastered from their EP, "Jungles" has managed to incorporate—what would you call it—a harmonized sing-along-style chorus? An anthemic refrain? Whatever musicologists would coin it, it's rousing, exciting and could have been incredibly corny, but in the hands of these music masters, it's remarkable. Much like the rest of this record.
There is one caveat to this particular masterpiece. If you haven't seen the dudes of Stepdad before hearing them, ride the honeymoon love-fest that is Wildlife Pop out before searching them on Google Images. Seriously, it is nothing you would expect.
—Alysa Zavala
Worth a Listen: "My Leather, My Fur, My Nails" and "Must Land Running"
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