After School Special

After making an impressive comeback with 2014s Lunchbox Loves You, which reimagined the band as a pint-sized power pop group with the swagger of a glam rock band and more hooks than the Archies, Lunchbox return with another glittering prize of an album. After School Special is a home-cooked delight thats made with clanging guitars, happily bouncy bass lines, piping trumpets, warm vintage keys, and vocals so sweet they could melt teeth. Along with snappy bubblegum tracks like Gary of the Academy and I Really Wanna Know that sound as sugar smacked as a bowl of Frosted Flakes, there are radiant intervals of sunshine pop (Dream Parade) and fuzzy psych (Melt into Air) that fit perfectly next to jagged blasts of mod excitement (Its Over Now) and chiming melancholia (Three Cheers for Autumntime). A couple songs -- the title track and Melt into Air -- have some of the soft glide that the bands records from the 90s had, only with about 75 percent more lo-fi grit added. Overall, the album is a fine mix of moods and musical approaches that flows like a well-chosen mixtape, each song sounding as much like a lost AM radio hit as the one that came before. Tim Brown (guitars, vocals) and Donna McKean (bass, vocals) have both been doing this a long time, and they combine their experience as songwriters and producers with a charming innocence that makes the record sound exceedingly fresh and new even though its taking multiple nostalgia trips at once. This album might not be the same knockout blow that Loves You was, but it connects with enough quick jabs and sneaky uppercuts to achieve the same impact in the end and should satisfy Lunchboxs fans as well as anyone who loves low-budget, high-excitement indie pop. ~ Tim Sendra