The Late Great Whatever... (Bonus Digital Booklet Version)

After the somewhat familiar pop-punk flavor of "Hear or Anywhere" kicks opens this SoCal quartet's full-length debut, the next track, "Fried Eyes," lets us know we're in for more than the limited pop-punk palette usually offers. Yes, there are fast and furious guitars, girl-boy vocals that veer between sweet and shouty, hooky melodies, and fairly discernible lyrics throughout The Lovely Bad Things, but these kids have some impressive weapons in their arsenal: solid songwriting skills for unique melodic arrangements and a glinting, sharp-edged energy that seems inexhaustible. "Fried Eyes" slows the pace to accompany the martial guitar stabs that dart in and out of a hazy background billowing with cloudy vocals and guitars; it turns from amorphous to pointedly feral as the tune crashes into itself several times. As the band slips back into pop-punk mode with "Maybe I Know," then into a frantic hardcore head-basher called "Kessel Run," listeners will be curious to hear what's next.