By DJ Monk
“Delightful” and “lovely” are not words we often employ here at Uber Rock, but they are the very adjectives we employed in relation to New Jersey power pop/punk duo 18th & Addison, when we selected ‘Leeches’, the first single to be lifted from this, their latest EP, for one of our coveted ‘Video Of The Week’ awards back in July.
‘Old Blues/Modern Love’ comfortably fits both descriptives, but you can also add in terms such as “edgy” and “enervating” to each of the four tracks with which they present us here. Kait DiBenedetto’s vocals almost inevitably draw comparators with other female singers operating in a similar stylistic, most notably the almost omnipresent Hayley Williams and Taylor Momsen (whose shadows seem to hang over almost every female power pop singer on the planet), while the jangly, joyous guitars draw on elements of The Pretenders and Blondie as much as they do the likes of Bowling For Soup and The Offspring.
But, under all the apparent frivolity, there is a darker tone, such as the dense crunch which underpins the otherwise happy-clappy main riff of ‘Drag’, on which they also make excellent use of the female/male vocal duology in a way which is almost conversational in its delivery (a feeling which, to me anyway, is always the sign of a great duet).
Like its single precursor, ‘Old Blues/Modern Love’ is a delightful collection of songs, with enough grit and gristle in them to appeal to hoary old rockers such as myself but enough poptasticness to get the kids pogoing all over their living rooms and dancefloors (if they’re old enough to pass the ID test!). Worth chucking out if you enjoy good-time fun with your rock ‘n’ roll fix.
- ‘Old Blues/Modern Love’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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