Helen Love - Power On (2020)

Since they first started making records in the early '90s, two things have always been clear about Helen Love. Firstly, they love the Ramones, especially Joey, more than just about anything. Secondly, they've dedicated their musical career to making the shiniest, silliest, hookiest bubblegum music possible. Whether tinny and lo-fi like their earliest work or dipped in synths like later stuff, their records are guaranteed to have huge singalong melodies, lyrics about summer sunshine, and Helen's never less than charming vocals. On 2020's Power On, they've rediscovered their love of guitars and early punk sounds. Instead of amped-up techno beats and cheesy synths, the songs are powered by barbed-wire guitar riffs and thudding drums with only the occasional cheerful organ sneaking in here and there. Helen has a bit of a sneer around the edge of her sugar-sweet vocals, and the overall feel is pure 1978 or so. Tracks like "Jackie" and "Debbie Take Control" would have sounded great blasting from a PA in a dingy punk club between sets by Buzzcocks and the Rezillos, "Dead in My Head" and "On My Own" have enough punch to knock out the toughest foe, and even the lightest songs like "Sandra Dee" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" have some real swagger. Despite all this, don't fear that Helen Love have become joyless punks obsessed with toughness or riffs; they still have the same gooey middle as always. They sing about love and the power of pop music, sample Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" to great effect, steal the chorus of the Kiss song "Shout It Out Loud" in hilarious fashion, and basically make good on their usual allotment of glorious pop moments. The difference is that in the past sometimes the stickiness of the melodies and the slickness of the music worked against each other; this time out, the roughness of the guitars, the power of the beat, and the dynamic vocals make the sweetness of everything else even more pleasurable. This is easily Helen Love's best album since their first two Radio Hits compilations, and if for some reason you wrote the band off, now's the time to rediscover just how much timeless fun they are.