Thee Makeout Party! - Play Pretend (2008)

Initially exploding into action via the legendary Let s Get Rid Of L.A. compilation album, Anaheim-spawned bedroom rockers Thee Makeout Party finally unleash their long-awaited debut full-length, proving that all those early Saturday morning record swap raids to score armfuls of discs from Dwight Twilley, The Quick, and Andy Kim were truly worth all the trouble. Play Pretend follows a string of flawless 7 inch singles and compilation cuts by the group and offers up a thrilling 30 minutes of 60s and 70s summery pop and garage rock goodness. Radio-ready romps like 2 Ez 2 Love and the gloriously-christened Wreckless Epic arrive totally decked out in Disney-damaged innocence, Teenage Fanclub guitar hooks, and Kasenetz-Katz hit factory flavoring, while future jukebox jammers Pauline, Change, and Its All Wrong are as close to pop perfection as your likely to hear until Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds decide to do us all a favor and reform Rockpile. John Peel ate this stuff up (a 2003 BBC radio broadcast proves it), so you should too. Pretty much perfect, and quite possibly the best group since -- dare we say it? -- The Archies.