Expert Timing is a group comprised of husband and wife duo Jeff and Katrina Snyder, and their friends Gibran and Nik, who describe themselves as "bubblegrunge." And, in case you were wondering, they were doing so before Spotify used the term to confuse and dismay the entirety human population during their apps' year-in-review wraps in 2021 (FYI, Expert Timing was formed in 2016! This is what we call prior art, bitch!). You'd think this fact would entitle the band to some kind of compensatory royalty, right? I'm sure a Hundred Million dollars would do it... or a pound of flesh from Daniel Ek. Either would make up for a fair rate of return the app owes them (and most musicians) for the use of their music all these years. Whichever. I'm not picky... although they might be. While we wait for the band to either announce their retirement and/or for Spotify to figure out which it can more easily part with, its money or its CEO, I encourage you to check out Expert Timing's second LP Stargazing; it's pretty spectacular! As you might expect from previously illuded genre designation, the album has a classic '90s, warm and nostalgic sensibility about it, conjured without pretense or a hint of irony. Expert Timing exhibit all the splendor and curiosity of an untamed and still thriving specimen of that prior decade's pop-punk and powerpop explosion. A playful and ever-spry instance of rare guitar-pop passion that shares healthy and adaptable taxonomical distinctions with The Rentals, Hot Rod Circuit, and early Fountains Of Wayne. I love all of it, but I'm particularly fond of the hooky wind-up of "Super Ordinary Unimpressed" with its trembling gait and confident leaping stride, the gyrating patterns and electric taffy-pull of the slightly sour sugar-bopper "Autonomy," the dream-loaded bossy strut of "New Queen," and the simmering build and ultimately sensational pirouette of "I Can See You Dancing," which arrives near the end of the album like the soundtrack to the last triumphant dance at a high school prom, where destined lovers finally unite below the stage lights, encircled by their peers, swaying chest to chest and cheek to cheek. Stargazing has me thoroughly dazzled with its bright, joyful noise, and is leaving me wishing for a night that won't end so long as I can keep it blasting through my stereo speakers.
