This is on Victory? The Reunion Show play super-excited power pop often led by an old Moog keyboard. The main singer’s voice gets a bit jarring sometimes especially with the blunt delivery of some cheesy lines (e.g. “I’m sick and tired of this goddam love stuff”), but in less than a full listen, it grows on you. The opener, “Television,” wastes no time in blasting the fuck off. The staccato guitar chords and winding keyboard riff don’t build or grow, they just punch the song right into high gear. Through the album’s eleven tracks, The Reunion Show will rarely let down. Pop rock often sacrifices energy to emphasize hooks and is the poorer for it. The Reunion Show know the value of high energy hooks and so will rarely slow the pace to catch a breath.

“Art of Nothing” revs up immediately with more crunchy guitars and a winsome keyboard line. Here is one of the places the lyrics will get a bit cheesy but the relentless drive of the song forces lines like “All this beauty has truly come alive” into mere afterthought (Did he just say..? Nah.).

“Stuck on You” could be a Cars song, albeit one on amphetamines. It and the likes of “Character Assasination,” “On A Scale From One To Awesome (You’re Pretty Great)” and “Drop It!” manage to blank out middle-of-the-road fare like “New Rock Revolution” and “Dedication.” Don’t mistake the Victory Records imprint to indicate anything resembling punk or emocore here; this is straight-up power pop. It just happens that it’s power pop more powerful and less subtle than the jangly Cheap Trick/Big Star ilk. It also confirms that the emo generation is as serious about its pop music as its navel-gazing.