It's appropriate that one of the ten songs on this disc is called "Three Car Garage." Louden Swain plays garage pop/rock with class. The music is tuneful, upbeat, and diverting, and sounds as if it indeed was created in a very nice clean garage. But it never gets either too uppity or too low down. With sharp guitar riffs, timely drumming, great bass work by Borja, and boyish vocals by Rob Benedict, all backed by the other bandmembers' tight harmonies, at different times Louden Swain evokes the style of early Green Day, Weezer, and even the Pretenders. The songs deal in an unabashedly innocent way with topics like youthful self-doubt ("Head Check"), family problems ("Grandma's Song"), hero worship ("In Like Finn"), and love gone wrong ("St. Louis," "When I'm Gone"), and contain an underlying optimism that's a refreshing change from punk angst. This is a strong debut album -- and hopefully if Louden Swain gets better, the band will do so without sacrificing its bouncy approach in favor of pretentiousness and/or grouchiness.
© Lynne Bronstein /TiVo