Get the Duckboats ready, climb a lamppost, spray cheap soda into the air, and start high-fiving strangers. BADZY’s To the Bone is the kind of debut that deserves a ridiculous celebration.

This scorcher of a garage power pop album from New Orleans shakes with rock ‘n’ roll history, glam swagger, and punk rock energy. On some songs (like on Shadows, Waiting) it sounds like The Replacements taking a detour into power pop. On others (e.g., Aint That Enuff, Say You’re Ready), BADZY taps into that glorious 2010–2015 wave of garage power pop bands like Barreracudas and Mother’s Children. And on the closer, the almost-theme-song Bad Til I Die, they hint more than a little at their love of glam metal.

Book BADZY alongside peers like The Whiffs, The Rubs, and The Reflectors and I will be there in the front row embarrassing myself.

And let me tell you something: for all the cool guitar playing and killer rhythm work, BADZY’s real winning ticket are the vocals. Their singer sounds like he’s singing his heart out at closing time, fully aware it probably won’t change anything and doing it anyway. The gang vocals and harmonies only crank the emotional payoff up another notch.

The band (featuring members of Trash Light, Stolen Pill, Gator Bait, Flea Circus) spent three and a half years working on this debut, and that patience is exactly what makes To the Bone so ridiculously good. It hits you in the chest before it hits you in the head, but those buildups and payoffs land with the precision of a band that has done its homework. The riffs feel lovingly stolen from the greats and rebuilt into something unmistakably their own, while the hooks have been tested and sharpened until you start bleeding just by looking at them.

This one’s going to leave a mark.

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