The novelty of teenagers producing quality music is part of the charm, but the fact that it is pretty good in a sea full of suck is the bigger headline.
Hozie can write hooks that are immediately catchy. “Stain Gaze” features almost Dinosaur Jr.-level guitars. It’s like I’m listening to the Flaming Lips or something.
There are a lot of raunchy guitars on Generation Irrelevant, lots of guitars, period. The record is busy, mixing riffs, solos, and sing-along choruses.
It’s a familial venture, pop Jason Martin and son Charlie. For the former, it’s an orchestral reworking of previous songs, for the latter, its new ones.
Tony Esposito went to the Kurt Cobain School of Unintelligible Lyrics, but he does it in a pop punk sense. There are real guitars here, like shredding guitars.
On 11th proper studio record, James Hetfield is riffing like a mother on songs that run on too long. Nothing groundbreaking, but there’s crunch-crunch aplenty.