Bare Wires - Cheap Perfume 10'' (Southpaw, 2011)

Bare Wires

Cheap Perfume 10''

Southpaw

2011

Rating: 7 strange bottles of cologne out of 10

I wrote about Bare Wires this summer - the "Don't Ever Change" 7" - and this almost-a-full-length album shares that title track in common (but failed to include the amazing b-side "Ready To Go", one of the best songs of the entire year).  Sound-wise, it's still all very familiar, mostly because it calls beck to some of the best music of all time: Thin Lizzy, Big Star, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, etc.  Any music that is this simple and so packed with hooks is going to sound like a lot of other well-established bands no matter what - and nobody really cares because if a song is catchy, a song is catchy, even if it's the same song you've heard a thousand times by a thousand different bands.  You keep going back and listening again and again, singing along, not a care in the world.  Catchy music has that effect on me at least, and I'm certain I'm not alone.  Bare Wires are making some of the catchiest music of anyone writing songs these days.