MCII
Merge
2013
Rating: 8.5 golden turnips out of 10
It's so nice to see some of the kids embracing pure pop as an art form, and Mikal Cronin is one of the best up-n-comers on the scene. He gets street cred through his connection to Ty Segall, but his music is much more polished and straight-forward than most of the material in that garage-pop-punk scene. Mikal is writing music that would sound at home on a Teenage Fanclub record, or before that a Big Star record, or before that a Beach Boys record. Ok, the guitars are maybe a little heavy for the Beach Boys, but the hooks are definitely there. His self-titled first album was a great start, but "MCII" is a huge step forward in my book. Was it maturation? Merge money? Sheer luck? I don't know and I don't care, so long as I get to keep listening to this record over and over and over. If this album isn't near the very top of my year end list come December, that means the last half of this year is going to be one of the greatest new music time periods ever.
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