DISTRO - The Goods - Don't Spoil The Fun (2025) - SOLD OUT
€20.00
DISTRO - The Goods - Don't Spoil The Fun (2025) - SOLD OUT
€20.00
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Oakland power pop outfit The Goods arrive with their long-awaited full-length, Don’t Spoil the Fun. Recalling the jangle and melodicism of early luminaries like The Byrds and Big Star, with the punch and verve of 90s torchbearers like Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet, The Goods adapt the hallmarks of the genre into a fresh and effervescent cocktail that sparkles with sincerity. Reverent of their influences but with a sound unmistakably their own, on Don’t Spoil the Fun The Goods fulfill the promise of contemporary power pop with grace and panache.
Produced by songwriter Rob Good (also of indie pop darlings Ryli) in his own Oakland studio, the album’s 11 songs positively leap from the grooves, putting Good’s penchant for tight, clever songwriting and big melodic hooks on full display. The LP marks a great leap forward from the band’s debut EP, eschewing much of that disc’s punkish grit in favor of a sunny technicolor jangle, without sacrificing an ounce of their trademark energy. Joined by bassist Cherron Arens and guitarist Gabriel Monnot, Don’t Spoil the Fun finds The Goods embracing a fully-realized panoramic pop sound, where electric guitar arpeggios ring and vocal harmonies soar atop a bed of sprightly strummed acoustic guitars and bouncing basslines. The arrangements are snappy and assured, and earworms abound.
Running through the album’s lyrics are themes of fraught relationships - searching for, finding, and losing love and connection - but rather than wallowing or lashing out, Good’s perspective remains warmly empathetic.
Leadoff single and album opener “April Fools” - a sunshiney, sugarcoated, and briskly-paced gem clocking in at just over two minutes - encapsulates the band’s chime-and-strum musical approach. Of the lyrics, Good reflects, “It’s about being tugged around by someone else’s ever-changing moods, someone who drives you up the wall but who you’re nevertheless drawn to, almost because of how crazy they make you.” Meanwhile, Side B opener “Sunday Morning Out of the Blue” is a frenetic mod-pop banger, wherein Good pleads to the song’s antagonist to “keep the faith - it’s all for you” in the hopes that soon the clouds will part and genuine connection will be found. Elsewhere on the record, “Sarah Says,” an ode to a crumbling relationship, steers things into plaintive, acoustic territory, showcasing Good’s knack for Chilton-esque balladry, while the penultimate track “Remember” wraps The Goods’ signature sound in a gauzy haze, recalling Roger McGuinn at his most wistful and sentimental, as Good wonders of a long-lost friend, “I can remember - can you remember me?”
It all makes for an album that is welcoming to approach but reveals its depths on repeated spins. The Goods’ brand of heartfelt power pop, delivered with deft assurance and sincere emotion, may just be the sound of summer, arriving just in time for the fall.
