Since the arrival of the Beatles and the Kinks sixty years ago, the UK seems just stuffed to the shores with guitar-led pop bands with a batch of cool tunes. Add Stourbridge’s Amoeba Teen to the list, and it’s a list they deserve to be on. The band’s self-titled third album bursts with catchy gobs of rich melody, led off immediately by the joyous, glam-inflected “Mainstream,” which announces the quartet’s intentions loudly. The Teens continue their cheeky attack on “New Material World,” “Monica Wake Up” and “Barlight Crawl,” not to mention the sweetly snide “Just Not That Into You,” good cheer trumping sarcasm. But the band gets serious from time to time as well, especially on the introspective “January” and the winsome “Putting the Kids Through College” and “A Good Reason Why.” Amoeba Teen crashes to a close with the crunchy “King of the Cut,” an orgy of six-string hooks, clever lyrics and general tunefulness that makes anyone with a power pop jones glad to be alive.
