Just because your little sister likes it doesn’t mean it’s bad, right? I mean c’mon, Fall Out Boy may not have the same reputation as Circle Takes the Square, but who isn’t up for some upbeat power-pop every now and then, excluding metal heads, that is. Some people call the pop-punk and power-pop genres worthless and without merit. I strongly disagree. True, Bad Astronaut and Say Anything don’t have the same, deep musical compositions or technical prowess of say, progressive music or post-rock. That’s not the goal of these shallow, simplistic bands. They provide immediately gratifying, pleasurable music. This is where power-pop band End Transmission comes into play. Devour is by no means a musical masterpiece. End Transmission’s debut album is not entirely original, and I would call it a bit shallow or superficial. Now that that’s out of the way, I really liked this album. It serves the purpose nicely. Devour is chock- full with 11 enjoyable songs. 

Contrast and contradiction plague Wildlife, in a good way. Recorded in their home, located in Champaign, Illinois, the angst and confusion shows through on their latest record. Created in a short period of time and marked by band break-ups during the process, Wildlife combines beautiful, lush indie-pop with a welcome sense of variety that is so often lacking in similar sounding music. Indie-pop often falls victim to monotony and flatness, but Headlights keep things fresh.

Joel Plaskett, at 33.3 years old, entitled 3 songs on his new release with 3 repeating words, “Rolling, Rolling, Rolling,” “Rewind, Rewind, Rewind,” and “Gone, Gone, Gone.” At this point, he couldn’t stop the trend. He decided to record a triple CD release, entitled Three, with 9 songs apiece, all with their own independent styles and concepts. He may have gone a bit too far, far, far, as the last mentioned song suggests, but it’s an interesting concept, at least, even if it is borderline gimmicky. Relaxing folk ballads blended with some soft rock are at the crux of Three, but ultimately it’s Plaskett’s ability to hide “3’s” all over this record that overshadow the actual music.