Easier Said Than Done

Tallahassee Floridas Pool Kids keep the emo-pop torch burning on their hooky and cathartic third album, 2025s Easier Said Than Done. Led by singer/guitarist Christine Goodwyne, the band (which also features guitarist Andy Anaya, bassist Nicolette Alvarez, and drummer Caden Clinton) has been steadily picking up momentum since debuting with 2018s Music to Practice Safe Sex To. Together, they craft an immediately likable brand of guitar pop that smartly weaves together influences like Jimmy Eat World, Liz Phair, and Paramore, the latter of whose Hayley Williams even gave the band a shout of support on social media in 2022. Blessed with a warm, resonant voice and knack for relatable lyrics that seem to get at the heart of the bittersweet nature of small, everyday experiences, Goodwyne is a surprisingly assured and charismatic frontperson. Part of her charm is that she often feels like a former punky skate kid who is just as surprised as anyone at her own musical success. Its a feeling she underscores on "Leona Street," a big smiling, 90s-style alt-rock anthem in which she imagines going home and an old crush seeing who shes become. She sings, "‘Cause I’m not the girl that you knew, you thought/That would smoke in the back of my truck in the parking lot/Up the road down the street, that would cough, fall asleep/Then complain ‘til we would drive back home/No, that’s not the girl you used to know." As Goodwyne has matured, so has the bands sound. Without losing any of their crisp, rock-infused edge, they explore a more nuanced sonic atmosphere, even coating Goodwynes vocals in moody, Imogen Heap-esque vocoder on the title track. Theres also the yearning mid-album ballad "Sorry Not Sorry," in which Goodwyne opines of her lover, "You only call me when youre sober" against a buzzy cloud of fluorescent keyboards. Yet there is plenty of rock pathos here, like the heart-wrenching wallop of "Tinted Windows" and "Dani," a slow-building emo epic about childhood trauma that builds to a throaty, bone-crushing peak. ~ Matt Collar

フロリダのエモ・バンドがエピタフ移籍第1弾となるサード・アルバムを完成。作風としてはアンニュイな女性ヴォーカルが神秘的な雰囲気を放ち、マスロック調のギターは歌をジャマせずに曲の情感を盛り上げる。また、デフトーンズに通じるアンビエントな耽美性もあり、作品トータルでポップな仕上がりに着地。ビョークが憑依したような"Dani"の歌心も訴求力が高い。
bounce (C)荒金良介