Top Five Albums of 2010, no. 4

The Soft Pack, The Soft Pack

The front of this San Diego foursome’s album shows the group on a beach, passing a joint. They look like typical stoner rock guys: messy hair, wrinkled shirts, Ray-Ban shades. And if you were to judge this book by its cover, you might assume it was typical garage rock music. However, when you assume, you make an ASS of U and ME. The Soft Pack actually make an atypical up-tempo racket, complete with deliberately-dumb vocals and shit-shaking riffs (“Mexico” even has a bit of slide guitar).

The band’s sound owes as much to nineties noise-rockers Pavement as it does to eighties punk-rockers the Ramones. Throw in a dash of present-day indie rock to firmly plant the band in the here-and-now and you’ve got a well-rounded recipe for unabashed fun.

Take the surf-y lead guitar on “Down On Loving.” It hangs loose over the rhythm section, adding a retro jolt to an otherwise contemporary song. And the Farfisa on “Move Along”? It’s so frantic, jammed between a manic one-chord guitar attack and frenzied drums, that it tells me these boys were born to boogie. And boys they are. Really, I still don’t know whether “Pull Out” is about driving or doing it.

The band’s sense of immaturity is apparent throughout (with “Flammable,” a brash threat to burn down the house, being another example), making me think the guys are more concerned with having fun than having fans. In fact, I saw them play to a nearly empty room last spring. But with an album this catchy (and assuming they follow it up with an equally accessible release), it won’t be long before they become a hot ticket.

The Soft Pack is a glib, flippant album – perfect for an escape from reality and a journey to la-la-land – something I desperately needed in 2010.