“If you should find yourself having trouble locating a pulse in today’s music, Throwback Suburbia is the proof of life in power pop.” – these words are posted on the Throwback Suburbia My Space page. Here is an awesome band that wraps itself up in the spirit of the genre. It opens with the pop explosion that is “Private Oasis” full of ringing guitars and strong melody reminiscent of The Rubinoos. The follow up “Asking Why” is a Velvet Crush/Raspberries-like tune full of great chords and impeccable harmonies. The band hits for the fences here and succeeds with the ELO-styled opening piano chords on “Head Over Heels” and it’s one of the albums many standouts. Fans of Jellyfish will appreciate this as well as the “The Same Mistake” which has such a clean pop sound, and smart songwriting that it really deserves to be a radio friendly hit. The first half of the album hits the sweet spot for sure, then it goes for a harder sound on “Say When” for the Tom Petty fans here. But really, there is not a single note of filler here, and plenty of pop gems to soothe hungry ears. “Perfectly Okay” goes all Fountains of Wayne with us and “Halfway To The Stars” is a cool Jellyfish mid-tempo that sounds as good as anything Roger Manning has written, and it’s my favorite song on the album. They’ve already blown the doors off of International Pop Overthrow in Los Angeles this year and I hope to hear more of them in the years to come. This band deserves much accolades for this full length debut – easily one of the best of the year. It’s another “must-get-it-now” slice of music heaven.
