Well Wishers / “Dreaming of the West Coast” / That Was My Skull Music (BMI)

You had me at “RIYL Nada Surf” (naturally), but this is way more power pop. High register male vocals, with slight nasal nerd-tinge. Super poppy rock. Catchy, head boppin, good stuff. Nothing super novel, but all solid tracks. Listening to the whole album, some songs start sounding the same. But some have the dramatic flair I kind of love. Playing one on your show will definitely pep things up and offend no one.


FCC - 9
Favorites: 2, 4, 10, 12
Individual tracks reviewed inside.

1. 3:33 Poppy poppy poppy. Jangly guitars, familiar chords – could be a Matthew Sweet song.
2. *3:18 Upbeat, catchy, toe-tappin. “woohoo”s and jangly chords.
3. 4:36 Uptempo, sunny, longing, rocky distorted guitars.
4. *3:54 Killer verse, catchy, pained, awesome. Chorus a bit plain, but great overall.
5. 2:36 Steady piano mid beat, think forlorn nerd. Kind of like nasal Ben Folds.
6. 3:49 Super sunny pop-rock (title is “Here Comes Love”), I think there’s even a tambourine!!
7. 3:28 Pretty standard uptempo pop rock.
8. 2:12 Catchy, standard, decent. Cover of a The Smoke song.
9. 3:32 FCC – “shit”,“fucking”. Frenetic, punkier sound.
10. *3:42 Quick strum guitar, harmonized vocals, dramatic/pained, kinda great.
11. 3:12 Upbeat jangly, chorus pretty catchy, but doesn’t stand out too much.
12. *4:03 Solid distorted guitar background. Kind of epic guitar wailings and layered vocals to end. Nice! Last 40sec - fades out, fades back in.
Deniz Cebenoyan