On the day Brian Wilson passed away, stumbling onto a new release titled Elvis Lives! feels a little eerie. All the more so when one of its songs turns out to be a gentle, lo-fi cover of the Beach Boys’ Don’t Worry Baby—a loving nod that hits especially hard.

The Cherry Tops are a trio of rock’n’roll romantics from the Midwest who make stripped-down garage pop—not the rowdy kind, but the clean, low-key, lo-fi variety. Their 9-song album features four covers (Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Wild Thing are the other three) alongside five originals that sound like they’ve been beamed in from a dusty jukebox in 1965.

Elvis Lives! doesn’t aim to break new ground, but it nails the feel of a timeless era. It’s simple, sweet, and full of heart—and that’s more than enough for me.

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