Power pop déjà vu, delivered with infectious youthful exuberance.
Forty years ago, New Musical Express journalist David Quantick suggested that pop culture was becoming increasingly self-referential, to the point of exhaustion, ultimately predicting that “pop would eat itself.” In 2022, Quantick revised that thought, writing that, “pop has done more than eat itself, it’s eaten itself and thrown itself up and then eaten that up and been sick again and so on, like the dog after it’s been at some very tasty margarine.” However, hasn’t pop music always been recycling past trends? And surely pop music thrives on familiarity and a smidgeon of novelty?
The Uni Boys are a Southern California-based power pop quartet that originates from Aliso Viejo, formed by high school friends Reza Matin and Noah Nash, who met when they were 15 years old. Martin and Nash split the songwriting duties between them, both playing guitar and contributing lead vocals. However, are they an example of pop eating itself or perhaps going even further than that, as Quantick pondered in 2022? Well, the power-pop produced by the Uni Boys has something to it, even if its origins can be traced back to bands such as Teenage Fanclub and Big Star, to name just two. The Uni Boys’ journey to crafting power pop albums wasn’t a straight line, taking in punk rock and Canterbury scene bands such as Soft Machine, before Matin says the band “transitioned into more structured power pop stuff.”
This record gallops off at full pace with Victim of Myself a story of self-sabotage. Maybe I’m Wrong wouldn’t be out of place on a Teenage Fanclub album and expresses the self‑doubt that exists in many relationships, and the uneasy space between confidence and insecurity. It’s catchy and features some great harmonies. You’re So(Phisticated) is a jangly banger which is instantly likeable. It has a sunny feel to it, whilst at the same time conveying social anxiety with an ironic wink to the listener. The next song, Genevieve, is less playful and more subdued and reflective, although the guitars are still to the fore in this bittersweet portrait of admiration of someone who’s potentially out of reach.
There’s some genuinely fine power pop on this album, suggesting that pop itself hasn’t completely consumed its own roots. The exuberance expressed over the course of 36 minutes on the 12 songs on this record is infectious. However, if you’re not already a devotee of this form of guitar music, it may not do enough to persuade you to become a fan.
