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There’s a fantastic line (on a record full of fantastic lines) on the song “XR,” a stomping folk-punk song that sounds like nothing Cymbals Eat Guitars have done before, that goes, “Wanna wake up wanting to listen to records, but those old feelings elude me.” Yes, this is another record by twentysomethings about nostalgia and growing up, but I’m a nostalgic twentysomething who’s worried about growing up so it hits me right in the sweet spot. It is (ironically?) one of those records that makes you want to wake up, drink some coffee, and then listen to it over and over again.

“Jackson,” the opening track, is already a great song as it approaches the five-minute mark, but then there’s a spine-tingling, ceiling-touching guitar solo and all of a sudden you’re feeling things and you have the same faith in rock and roll’s power that you did when you were fourteen. Things get rowdy on single “Warning” (which has a rad Bowie lyric reference) and you’re sold. This is a beautifully honest and open record with a lot of feelings (I feel like describing great lyrics is like pushing a rock up a hill.) Unlike their last record Lenses Alien, which was great but dense, this record hits you immediately in the heart and you feel like a kid again.

-Layne Montgomery