Eyelids - A Colossal Waste of Light (Jealous Butcher)

Portland’s Eyelids sound like they’ve mainlined several generations of tuneful power pop and college rock on their fifth studio album A Colossal Waste of Light. No surprise there – after all, principals include guitar popping luminaries like singer Chris Slusarenko (Boston Spaceships, the Takeovers), guitarist Jim Talstra (No. 2, long-lost Pacific Northwesterners Dharma Bums), guitarist John Moen (the Decemberists, Heatmiser, also the Dharma Bums and Boston Spaceships), and, as of this album, bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom). Full of crunchy six-strings, jangly twelve-strings, plangent harmonies, and more hooks than amateur night on a vaudeville stage, the record teems with gems: the title tune, “Everything That I See You See Better,” “Only So Much,” “That’s Not Real at All,” “Lyin’ in Your Tomb,” the gorgeous “Misuse.” Fans of guitars, melodies, harmonies, and old-fashioned rock & roll drive who haven’t heard Eyelids are clearly missing out.