Though their ninth LP since 2006 veers further from their older Shoes/Records/Nerves power-pop formula than 2021’s Phooey! did, singer/guitarist Patric Westoo’s New York group is still as melodic and upbeat as ever. The rollicking, organ-laced opener “Tan Lines” is a red herring, mixing Lyres/Fleshtones garage rock with traces of Blur Britpop, on which a gullible Westoo reels off the names of women who’ve “played him like a radio.” But it’s the brisker, jangly/punky Flying Nun-inspired direction they explored on Phooey!’s first two tracks (“Sliding Down a Ladder” and “Make Believe”) that reigns on Off We Go, as the kinetic title track, “Rainy Day,” “Wide Awake With the Rattlesnakes,” “Fine Fine,” and “LA Time Again” all hint of The Clean, Chills, and Bats, while “Meeting of the Minds” adds an incessant, Madness-tinged ska beat. The reflective, Go-Betweens meets Wild Carnation “In and Out of Time,” rustic, Replacements-like “I Want it Again,” and two nice ballads (“Kitchen Floor,” “Blood on the Knife”) provide lighter, yet equally savory pleasures.
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