These are excellent times for fans of out-of-time prime quality, power pop and hooky guitar pop. The list of excellent power pop releases and discoveries in 2024 keeps growing.

The latest star to pop up on the horizon is the new Smug Brothers EP. In ten minutes or so, the band from Ohio takes us through six songs that sound like a Guided By Voices interpretation of classic power pop. It’s a concise yet rich brew that I’d place right in the midpoint of a triangle between The Whiffs, The Lemon Twigs and Big Star. Less punky than the first, more unpolished than the second and more modern (yet still classic sounding) than the last.

The most recent Smug Brothers LP featured some of the best power pop songs of the ’20s. This new EP is all hits, and I’m blown away by how packed with goodness these songs are. The 70-second Seamus and the Younger, for example, feels extremely accomplished and full despite its brevity. It’s my favorite track of the EP together with closer Shedding Polymer – a song that will make you go for another round again and again.

Another Bar Behind the Night is out now digitally and on cassette through Anyway Records and Just Because Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Just Because Records