Thursday’s child doesn’t have far to go for some hooky tunes this week. Day 4 of our solid-week-of-singles event runs the gamut from jangle to rawk guitars to neo-glam swing to fully-loaded keyboard pop. Sugar World is the new project of two former members of Florida’s Naps, now relocated to San Diego, California. Their lone release is the single, “Sad in Heaven,” which reminds me of the janglicious work of German indie darlings, The Catherines. Bouncy, light, and memorable – just what a single should be! Aloner likes to set his amp to 11. Regularly. Don’t let the adorable kitties on the covers fool you, this is a guy who likes to rawk. But beneath the wall of guitars veneer are some solid melodies, like “Middle Man” from his latest long-player In Between. Even the rock solo is hooky! (I confess, there are few acoustic interludes on the record now and then, like the lovely “Not Cool”). Hanky Panky bring a bit of continental French cool to our post with a song from their latest release, Life is Not a Fairy Tale. “Milk” opens with chords and guitars that sound punk before being overtaken by some uber cool organ swirls that take the song in a more indie poprock direction. The vocalist’s discernable French accent also adds allure to an already winning tune! Chicago’s Lucille Furs 2019 album another land channels a lot of influences to my ears: the neo-glam sound of acts like Vaccines or Bosco Rogers, the vocal stylings of Mika (if he were a new wave artist), to name just a few. It’s an album of fun songs but “Paint Euphrosyne Blue” really stands out for me. It’s an irresistible tune with a driving beat and solid retro guitar and keyboard hooks. And not many lyricists can work ‘cisgender boys’ into a song and not sound pedantic! Last up for Thursday, we head off to Italy to hear Zac’s new single, “I Got Something in my Mind.” The track opens with an ominous keyboard that suddenly shifts into a sound that is so late 1970s poprock a la Supertramp, if that band recorded new wave tunes. The album is also called Zac and there’s more of the poptastic same all over it.

Sugar World, Aloner, Hanky Panky, Lucille Furs and Zac might be making music for the good of their health. But some cash probably wouldn’t go amiss either.