The_First_Times

Yearning for the days when power pop was earnest and innocent, with just the right amount of sugary-sweet lyrics that read like a love letter to a teenage crush? Seattle's the First Times can help you out. On their recent self-titled debut album, they pack their songs with Rickenbacker riffs and slick mod-pop hooks in an evocative style that's somewhere between Nick Lowe's classic ripper Jesus of Cool and the Jam's In the City. The band sounds like a late-'70s Creem-magazine-approved band on ...

Yearning for the days when power pop was earnest and innocent, with just the right amount of sugary-sweet lyrics that read like a love letter to a teenage crush? Seattle's the First Times can help you out. On their recent self-titled debut album, they pack their songs with Rickenbacker riffs and slick mod-pop hooks in an evocative style that's somewhere between Nick Lowe's classic ripper Jesus of Cool and the Jam's In the City. The band sounds like a late-'70s Creem-magazine-approved band on Bomp! Records. The First Times' members weren't even alive when power pop peaked, but that doesn't make their music any less sincere. Power pop, meet your next of kin. - TRAVIS RITTER The Stranger (2011)