マルチ・インストゥルメンタリストPETER GILLを中心に、REMEMBER SPORTS、FRIENDSHIPらのメンバーらが集結した、パワーポップ・ルネッサンスの代表格、 2ND GRADEがDOUBLE DOUBLE WHAMMYより待望の2Nフル・アルバムをリリース!

ROLLING STONESからFLAMIN' GROOVIES、REDD KROSS、そしてGUIDED BY VOICESへと連なる系譜に敬意を表したピュアネスとガッツを感じさせるパワーポップ・サウンドは本作で更に高みへ! BIG STAR・ミーツ・GUIDED BY VOICESなパワーポップ・バンドの進化をタップリと堪能できます。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2022/10/03）

Philly power pop outfit 2nd Grade turn up the rock on their sophomore album Easy Listening, adding Stones-y swagger and high-powered riffing to the pop sweetness of their short, melodically charged songs. Both 2020 debut Hit to Hit and 2021’s demo collection Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited were patchworks of clean, sentimental songcraft, each offering more than 20 tunes that flew by in a matter of seconds and called on the jangly bittersweetness of pop legends like Teenage Fanclub, Guided by Voices, Sloan, or Big Star. The band’s romantic hooks and anxious pace are present on Easy Listening, but the guitars are louder and weightier, the attitudes a little more confident (sometimes to the point of fun brattiness on punky blasts like “Controlled Burn”), and the overall feeling the album evokes is one of summer fun through the lens of an imagined rock & roll nostalgia. In 2nd Grade’s universe of daydreams, the songs call up images of listless summer days at the airshow and restless nights chasing love with classic rock on the radio. “Strung Out on You” ties together the dazed longing and midtempo handclaps of Girlfriend-era Matthew Sweet, while “Cover of Rolling Stone” namechecks antiquated elements of different eras -- family landlines, bands famous from MTV airplay and magazine covers--- over anthemic chords and a one-minute-and-14-second runtime. Production approaches vary from song to song. “Beat of the Drum” is full force, driving, and surf-informed party rock recorded in high definition, while “Poet in Residence” slows down a riff borrowed from John Cougar Mellencamp’s 1982 hit “Hurts So Good” and filters the entire song through a muted, lo-fi filter. The short and drum-free “Planetarium” is equal parts gentle vocal harmonies and phaser-heavy instrumental, landing like a lost Alien Lanes track, while the closing title track lingers a little longer than most of the other tracks, blanketed in cassette hiss as it wanders through sweetly solitary moods. Easy Listening is a more full-barreled showing than earlier 2nd Grade efforts, with its moments of celebration and ennui both more vivid and defined. ~ Fred Thomas

Rovi