Some albums are so good you just have to drop everything to write about them. Today’s release of Softjaw’s new LP Love Can’t Kill You fits that bill. Reviewers have hailed the band’s reinvention of a classic 1970s power pop sound associated with Big Star, The Nerves and Cheap Trick and I’d have to echo such sentiments while adding a few more. I hear a lot of 1960s DNA embedded throughout the album and a synthesis that is also truly unique.

Things start out with a clever bit of misdirection as opening cut “You May Be Right” works up a noisy boogie-rock assault that largely exists at the far reaches of glam. Then “You Won’t See Me Cry” pulls back the guitar crunch a bit, doling it out in more pleasing shots while laying in some serious Beatlesque vocal harmonies. However, it’s when we get to “Poor Disguise” that the band’s tremendous originality come to the fore. The song is a masterclass in melodic sophistication and songwriting arrangement. The super-enriched harmony vocals cut through a backing brimming with breakout hooks. Hit single? It should be. There’s a Phil Seymour “You’re Precious to Me” kind of intensity going on here. “Love Can’t Kill You” is the other standout hit single material track here. The distinctive elements of this song – the guitar tones, the harmony vocals, the melodic hooks – come together so effortlessly, a testament to great playing and superior songwriting. As noted above, while a lot of coverage of this band notes the 1970s flavour I’d push things back to the 1960s too. There are early Beatles guitar vibes undergirding “Halfwit,” more than a tint of The Hollies colouring “That’s Alright With Me,” and lilting Merseybeat feel to “My Broken Heart.” Of course, “Million Different People” practically screams acoustic Big Star, right down to the big empty room atmosphere while “Pandemonium” has just a touch of Wings woven into it (Wings in a rocking mood, that is). I also love the genius arrangement of musical and vocal elements defining “Go Mad” and the low key jangle heaven that is “Flying High.”

Albums this good are dangerous. They raise our expectations of what can be produced in our post-genre era where everyone claims everything has already been done. Love Can’t Kill You demonstrates there’s still a lot of gas in the power pop tank. Get your copy without delay.