Wimps City Lights LP
There’s plenty to love about a three-piece of Seattle DIY vets laying out simple, confident, and melody-packed punk with a tinge of pop and garage. If “my shit” could be narrowly defined this would fall well within its parameters. From the midtempo beats that boogie in the pocket to the charmingly disaffected vocals of Rachel Ratner, these tracks keep up the momentum set in motion on their previous full-length (released on the iconic Kill Rock Stars). There is some of that KRS flavor here without relying heavily on ’90s nostalgia, but there is that Gen X slacker patina that still fires me up well into the new millennium. A track like “Big Dipper,” with its garage-y swagger, or the snotty follow-up “Never Leave the House” both showcase the group’s strengths beautifully. The lyrics are impressively simple as well, with condensed rhythms and repetition all with an ear for satisfying rhyme scheme. “Doing It” has plenty of gems such as the ever-relatable line “I pretend to be funny, but I never get the joke / I never spend my money, but I always end up broke / Don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m doing it.” When it comes to the music, though, these are clearly folks who have known what they’re doing for a while now.