The Power Pop Revival Is in Full Swing, and Uni Boys Is Leading the Way Back to the 70s With the Excellent 'Buy This Now!'

How do you follow up a perfect classic pop record? Bring in The Lemon Twigs, of course.

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Do It All Next Week may have been the third record in three quick years for Uni Boys, but for most power pop fanatics like myself, it may as well be their debut. Their earlier records, Heavy-Hearted and Rock n’ Roll Music are both enjoyable lo-fi garage punk efforts, but Do It All Next Week is the kind of album that gave the band a well-deserved boost in listenership and press, naturally leading to better touring opportunities. The Lemon Twigs opened the next door for Uni Boys by bringing them on as support while the Twigs toured their latest and career-best album, Endless Harmony.

Uni Boys made magic on Do It All Next Week by making Garageband sound like the best smoke-yellowed analog tape setup a major label could foot the bill for back in the seventies. With that in mind, I was stoked to find out that not only was Uni Boys working with Michael and Brian D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs while recording their follow-up album, Buy This Now!, but that the sessions were happening at the brothers’ Brooklyn studio. If Uni Boys could sound late-seventies authentic on Garageband, what wild new places would they go with an assist from the D’Addario brothers, who have also worked on some outstanding recent records from Weyes Blood, Foxygen, and Tim Heidecker?

If you dug the last record (quite a few of you from the many messages I’ve gotten about it since late last summer), you’ll love Buy This Now! - everything that made Do It All Next Week so awesome is still here, and things have only improved. Indulging in a band that includes multiple accomplished songwriters is always a listener’s heaven, and Uni Boys’ dual attack of Noah Nash and Reza Matin is a thing of classic pop beauty. Friends since they were teenagers in the Orange County suburbs, Nash and Matin were born ready for the Sunset Strip, and this new batch of tunes finds them honing in on their unique retro-influenced songcraft approaches while creating enormous hooks and grooves with bassist Michael Cipolletti and drummer Arthur Fitch.

Buy This Now! is sequenced perfectly in that these twelve songs alternate between Nash and Matin’s creations, each taking lead vocals on six songs. A lesser band might sound disjointed in this setup, but Uni Boys are so confident in their sound that the good times flow from one song to the next with ease. Nash offers some great moments about life’s little pleasures, like staying home on “Let’s Watch a Movie” or singing, “Feeling rotten, I’d rather stay in bed, and order takeout food, eat it in the nude,” on “Hiding in My Home.” While there’s no fat on this lean and mean record, Nash’s best submission comes later with “I’m Alright,” which has the most apparent D’Addario influence. The harmonies are spot on, and you can’t convince me otherwise that it’s not Brian or Carl Wilson singing the hook at the end of the bridge. It’s also worth noting that Fitch completely crushes the drums on this one.

Matin’s songs offer as much swagger - whether it’s the Beach Blanket Bingo escapism of “Down To the City” or earworm of a single in “I Don’t Believe in Love,” there’s plenty to love. In Matin’s songs, Uni Boys also try some new tricks. “Intentions” veers into indie rock territory before the hook pulls it back to the seventies. “Be My Baby Tonight” is a classic Joey Ramone-esque ballad that once again benefits from all of the harmonies and a nifty little guitar solo, and “Two Years” is the best song that Matin has written yet - full of chord progression wizardry it’s one that is one repeat.

Buy This Now! will surely please both Uni Boys fans and newcomers because it’s the best version of the band we’ve heard. The songwriting is tight, the sunbaked hooks are abundant, and The Lemon Twigs are the perfect pairing. Their influence is never overbearing, but the keyboards and harmonies are worth their weight in gold when you add them to the mix. If you’ll be as bold to name an album Buy This Now!, you better follow through. Uni Boys are quite the salesman and then some.

Buy This Now! is available now on Curation Records.

Have you heard ‘Buy This Now!’? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!