Palm Trees & Power Lines
Another album of unapologetic pop punk songs from this Santa Barbara outfit who have smartly filled in the void thatGreen Dayleft when they decided to dabble into rock's early canon and eschew self-loathing for more mature introspection. Sugarcult has none of those pretensions; instead their rock anthems are rather unadulterated and athletic--even when they're trying to sonically extricate themselves from complicated and claustrophobic romantic entanglements. With lyrics more clever than smart, Sugarcult makes romantic fatalism oddly entertaining as they take listeners through a wistful post mortem of a love affair gone awry. --Jaan Uhelszki