I Was Today Years Old When I Found Out Young Guv is One of the Finest Power Pop Acts Around

'Guv III' is a portrait of a group in a new challenging setting that ends up being a first quarter delight

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Shame on me for thinking Young Guv was a Soundcloud rapper.

For a few years now, I’ve passed any opportunity to listen to the Toronto and Los Angeles-based songwriter, with a horribly stupid preconception that he was part of the mumble-mouthed-I’m-too-old-for-this hip-hop branch. Instead, Young Guv is the moniker for Ben Cook’s deliciously sweet power-pop project that touches on all of the greats from one of my favorite genres. Instead of Lil’ Yachty or Lil’ Pump, think more The Posies or Fountains of Wayne from the scene’s nineties iteration. If that sounds like more of your thing, then read on.

Cook and company’s latest, Guv III, is still floating in that DIY power-pop lane but takes detours to Laurel Canyon, pulling from power-pop’s early roots in The Byrds and the city’s Paisley Underground scene in the eighties. “She Don’t Cry For Anyone” is the best example of this idea, as the Rickenbackers and tambourine turn the song one of the best jangle-pop numbers of the last few years. “Scam Likely” is similar but doubles as an excellent throwback Britpop anthem.

Guitarist Tommy Major is a natural fit to accompany “Guv” as their harmony work echoes the magic that Chris Collingwood and the late Adam Schlesinger made on Fountains of Wayne’s early best records (seriously, if your FOW exposure only consists of “Stacy’s Mom,” you’re sorely missing out. “Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried” and “It’s Only Dancin’” are a foot sweeping opening one-two punch, with the warm self-produced (Tony Price co-produces) sound benefitting drummer Richard Gowan’s hearty snare on the former. There’s not a bunk track on this thing, as “Lo Lo Lonely” goes back to Manchester in the nineties while featuring a solo pulled straight from Tony Molina’s lofi catalog, and “Only Wanna See U Tonight” will have you opening the windows to welcome that spring sunshine.

The eleven-song set is an effortless breeze, which is why it comes as a surprise that the group really had to dig it out for this one. Like an endless list of touring bands, Covid shut down Young Guv’s tour just over two years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. The group decided to stay in their stranded position in New Mexico, spending months writing the songs in an Earthship outside of Taos, just up the road from where yours truly is sitting. Going whole communal living, Young Guv experienced the shutdown together, including dips in the Rio Grande and sharing their money. Cooke was knocked off his usual songwriting routine, now commenting:

“I was isolated, the world was in complete chaos. I lost control of the routine that I thrive in. I worked on songs more randomly, only when I felt like it. I was hard on myself for not writing enough. Truthfully, I don’t even remember doing most of it. I was removed from the process, in a way, somehow alienated from my own creativity.”

While some of the album is recorded in New Mexico and Brooklyn, the majority comes from sessions at Jazzcats Studio and Figment Sounds, with Jonny Bell and Rob Campanella providing assists on the boards once the band returned to Los Angeles. Closer “April of My Life” switches up the formula and encompasses the themes of all of these places, featuring flute work by Tara Milch that would lend the song to a Wes Anderson film, had it been recorded fifty years ago.

Good Young Guv things come in twos, and Guv IV will be out later this year, instantly shooting up my most-anticipated list. Don’t be a judgemental dummy like me and embrace the power-pop perfection of Young Guv now.

Guv III is available now on Run For Cover Records.