Uni Boys prove once again they’re today’s answer to yesterday’s finest power pop acts. When I first stumbled on the band in their early days, I got siked right away, but I didn’t anticipate them still being around six years later, a band true to their style but with increasingly better material and execution. Their self-titled record (out this week on Curation Records) is stacked with sharp hooks, honey-sweet melodies, and the warmest vocals. Add an analog experience courtesy of the D’Addario Brothers behind the turns and knobs, and you get very happy fans.
Uni Boys have us eating out of their hands with fast burners like Victim of Myself, You’ll Curse His Name Again, Want You Back, and Look on the Bright Side. Then there’s You’re So (Phisticated), a song whose chorus (aaahh ooohhh) is so wonderfully dumb it loops back around to genius. This is music that takes you back to simpler times when your biggest worries were whether your crush noticed you and whether the record store had the new Shoes LP in stock.
But Uni Boys aren’t just rehashing the best parts of ’70s power pop. They’re broadening their scope. Abra leans into romantic glam pop. Genevieve channels sunshine pop. No Need To Serve a Purpose goes psych-y. Ambition and urgency come together most on the timeless pop hit Maybe I’m Wrong, in which Uni Boys come eerily close to morphing into The Lemon Twigs.
Look, I know gas prices are insane right now, but have you tried being a fan of throwback power pop and rock ‘n’ roll in 2026? We’ve already thrown cash at Mod Lang, Josephine Network, Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Sparrowhawk, Music City, and others. Now Uni Boys drop another AOTY contender and it’s not even April. At this rate, we’ll all be eating ramen by summer, but at least we’ll have killer record collections.