by Alex Reindl (@oldjoy_chicago)
The latest album by Philadelphia power-pop band 2nd Grade is an ode to love, youth, and music itself. It is a nostalgia-soaked romp through the sunniest kind of heartbreak and joy. If you told an alien species to create the quintessential 'American teenage experience' but only let them listen to Big Star's first two records, only let them watch the 3 Ninjas movies and cereal commercials from the 90s and maybe gave them some polaroids or disposable camera photos for aesthetics, the result probably wouldn't be dissimilar to Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited. Originally released on Sleeper Records in 2018, the record was apparently slept on until last June when Double Double Whammy re-released it with new studio recordings by the band, but also included the demos that comprised the first record. Songwriter and bandleader Peter Gill originally recorded all the instruments on it, but the re-release features full band arrangements that sharpen some of the fuzzier edges of the original demos. Truthfully, the demos are a bit more emotionally complex and allow some of the darker edges of these seemingly innocent and youthful power pop songs to shine through the bubbly melodies, so it's a good thing they left them on the album.
That isn't to say the nine studio songs are bad at all, quite the contrary. The production is crisp and clear and the performances are sharply honed as the band blasts through this nostalgic 'kick in the head' in around 24 minutes. The songwriting manages to retain a certain level of beginner's mind-esque innocence while simultaneously being clever and thoughtful. The end result is lighthearted without being fluff and effortlessly inspiring without taking itself too seriously. 2nd Grade seems to have mastered this 'innocent but wise' aesthetic first perfected by Calvin Johnson and Beat Happening while still managing to sound nothing like Beat Happening.
The opening song "As Long As We Can Talk About It" praises the benefits of communication over a shamelessly poppy arpeggiated acoustic guitar hook that's backed up by thick guitars reminiscent of Cheap Trick in all the best ways. "Favorite Song" cleverly goes through an entire relationship over the course of four months describing nothing about the relationship except the lovers' ever-shifting favorite songs, which actually describes everything if you know the musical references Gill is name-dropping. "Then it was May, nothing to say, my favorite song was 'Yesterday.' Up in my room, I hid all June, my favorite song was 'Sixteen Blue.'" Immediately after this is the title track which seems like an ode to a lost friend that takes lyrical cues from the Pink Floyd classic 'Wish You Were Here' but uses them to its own ends: "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year" becomes "After so many years swimming around one of us got flushed down." It's easy to be taken in by the catchy, major-key sing along quality of this song and miss the sad undertones.
The record doesn't slow down at all until the strangely hypnotic "Bad Boys of Rock n' Roll" which I suppose makes sense, since bad boys of rock and roll are supposed to be strangely hypnotic. The only line in this song is "They're the bad boys of rock and roll," sung over and over again over an introspective back beat. You can't say 2nd Grade doesn't have a sense of humor or an interest in slightly meta jokes. After this brief interlude things pick back up again with "No More Parties" which could be the anthem of DIY venue hosts all over the world. Listen to it and you'll understand. It's followed by another power-pop anthem in the making, "Work Til I Die," which I'm sure is relatable to an entire generation, whether or not they host DIY shows in their apartments. There is a knack for taking an incredibly simple line or idea and making it emotionally compelling that is on full display in this song in particular. Although it's the same line over and over throughout the two minute song, there is a wistful and resigned acceptance of the narrators fate when he sings "work til I die but spend all my free time with you." It strikes the perfect chord between happy and sad: a wistful resignation to a lifetime of work but the sad joy that comes from knowing that every eight hours you spend selling your time to someone else, you get two to four hours to spend with someone you really love, someone that makes the seemingly meaningless waste of your existence not only valuable but worthy. If a two minute power pop song with only eleven actual words in it can make you philosophical about the silver linings of your own life, it's probably doing something very right.
Second to last song "Kick in the Head" is ostensibly about love, but is also a great description of the record itself. "Kick in the head and your ears are ringing, kick in the head and that's all she wrote, kick in the head and you can't stop singing, must have been a kick in the head." You can't describe Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited much better than that. The songs are incredibly hooky and catchy without being overbearing or pretentious, they're easy to listen to without being boring and they most certainly will get stuck in your head. The final track takes the elementary school imagery to its logical conclusion and describes the feeling of being held back in 2nd grade, however without reading too far into this it's easily applicable to any and all hard knock life late bloomers and helps those of us who have figuratively or literally been held back feel a little less alone.
The record is also obviously a love letter to music itself as well, especially the unpretentiously joyful pop music that inspired it. 2nd Grade isn't afraid of being held back or of being child-like, there's clearly a joy and freedom in honestly being yourself and knowing that's good enough, and this record manifests that in a way that's hard to find these days. The world can be a very thankless and cold place, and I'm sure Gill understands this all too well. There are many people in the world who have been put together with a "ten cent brain and a punk rock heart," as he sings in “Superglue,” and everyone who can relate to that should be grateful that 2nd Grade made this record, their own kind of superglue that we can all roll around in. It's definitely stuck-in-your-head sticky, and will probably make you feel better than inhaling actual superglue.