West Virginia quartet
Rozwell Kid make their SideOneDummy debut with
Precious Art, a tuneful slab of fuzz-pop with its heart rooted firmly in the late '90s. The band is fronted by singer/guitarist Jordan Hudkins, who began
Rozwell Kid in 2011 as a solo side project of
the Demon Beat, another West Virginia outfit for whom he was the drummer. Since then, Hudkins and his bandmates, guitarist Adam L. Meisterhans, bassist Devin Donnelly, and drummer Sean Hallock, have managed a fairly prolific output, delivering three well-crafted LPs and a handful of EPs and singles, and fielding the inevitable
Weezer comparisons that have dogged them since day one. Yes,
Rozwell Kid do indeed share many of
Weezer's finer attributes, from their strong melodic hooks to their twin-guitar riffing, and of course there's also the undeniable sense of irony woven throughout
Precious Art's 12 tracks. Still, it's hard to find fault when the songs are this catchy and fun. With their dynamic, crunchy riffs and stacked harmonies, songs like "Boomerang" and "UHF on DVD" are earworms of the first degree. Hudkins knows his way around a good-time melody and he employs this gift liberally, especially on tracks like opener "Wendy's Trash Can" and the pleasantly goofy, minute-long "Wish Man."
Precious Art is also chock-full of pop culture references from Saturn sedans to South by Southwest to the aforementioned Wendy's and
Weird Al nods. What they lack in stylistic originality,
Rozwell Kid make up for in spirit and craft, delivering a smart and highly entertaining power pop record in an appealingly familiar style. ~ Timothy Monger