There’s so much to love about Tough Age’s second album. The Vancouver/Toronto four-piece made up of former members of the Ketamines has a loose, fun trash-rock sound with seriously solid songwriting to bop along to. Out on Mint, the 12 blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em tunes harken back to that label’s early days of releasing records by the Smugglers, Cub, the Evaporators and Riff Randells.
I Get The Feeling Central’s first half is especially strong. Songs like 50 Girls 50 and Walk! go in for classic, verbed-out garage rock, while Snakes & Ladders and Warm Hair glow with enough melodic uplift to bring Guided By Voices to mind. On Gutter Lemon, singer/guitarist Jarrett Samson howls with a distorted ferocity counterbalanced by sweet female backup vocals, and Flamenco Wiccan has Ramones ‘tude.
Guitar solos stay trebley and zingy throughout. Obscure pop-culture references litter the lyrics, as do references to heartbreak. And if surf instrumentals are your thing, there’s one of those, too.
Top track: Snakes & Ladders