Today I'm listening to Baltimore’s
Angel Du$t and their latest album
Pretty Buff. The band has now completed their transition from hooky hardcore hooligans to Americana swept pop-punk and the results are off the charts! The hardcore and pop-punk camps are notoriously antagonistic towards each other, and a band from one effortlessly adopting the aesthetic from the other and executing it nigh perfectly feels a little bit like a troll. Like Mark Wahlberg’s character in The Other Guys perfecting a ballet routine to bully a kid down the street. It feels that way, but I doubt that’s the intent. To someone who appreciates music from all over the spectrum of punk rock and doesn't really care if band making the music has the right pedigree, the positive, punchy, pop-punk on Pretty Buff is rather spectacular. The brief, buzzy, and acoustic “Big Ass Love” bulges with breezy charm, while “Biggest Girl” and “Five” are bubbly power-pop that float down from overhead as if descending from Providence, and “Bang My Drum” might as well be a cover of a lost Elvis Costello penned hit, complemented by a cheese-ball sax solo. Plushy, PMA pop-punk to help kick the week off right!
