by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
To play something that people often define as “straightforward” pop pock of any kind or inflection is actually not that straightforward at all. You have to be not only adept at playing your instruments, but you have to have a basic, very defined sense of melody that usually drives such music. If you, at that, add certain, not so straightforward elements in there, no matter how minute they might seem, you actually have to throw in that wrench at the precise points to make such music work.
That is exactly what Sheer Mag do on their third and latest album, Playing Favorites. Take for example the second song on this album, "Eat It and Beat It”. With an unbeatable melody and some incredibly tight instrumentation, this Philadelphia four-piece start seemingly making some miss-steps through the song that are actually not miss-steps at all, but elements that make it truly unique and thoroughly listenable. That is exactly what they keep on doing throughout the album, throwing in some tight guitars and off-kilter harmonies like on "All Lined Up." It’s all somewhere between post-punk and power-pop at its best, spiced with some strong lyrics by Matt Palmer, delivered convincingly by singer Tina Halladay, and some great guitar licks by Kyle Seely (with his brother Hart on bass).
The thing is, to create such an individual take on melodic pop-rock requires the collective vision and playing that Sheer Mag have been doing for the past decade. Their sound has acquired full fruition on this album and its displayed through all eleven songs. Yes, it is music that has that “pop” tag in front of it all, but it is pop of the excellent variety.