Poison Oak has always been one of those bands brilliant at balancing the fresh with the familiar. Listen to any one of their songs, and you hear something of one or more golden ages of music echoing out – 80’s US college rock, 90’s indie-pop revivalism, 2000’s indie-rock renaissance – as much as you do their own forward-thinking song crafting. “Melt,” their latest one, is not only that balancing act in action, but it is also that balancing act squared!
Their trick is simple, it is the infectious embedded in the anthemic, the groovesome running through enough spaciousness that the light gets in, light that allows everything to breathe. The sound of a band that knows music history and understands where they come from as much as where they are going. And more than that, it is the sound of a band with great tunes and a proven track record of delivering them to perfection.
“Melt” is a song out of step with fashion, but only because it captures all manner of timeless qualities that have always made this brand of indie-rock so enduring. The riffs are big and buoyant, the beat boogiesome, the lyrics accessible enough that by the time the chorus kicks in, you have a fist in the air, are singing along or cutting a rug (as the kids may or may not be calling it), or, for those dexterous enough, all three.
Some music aims to be clever, some tries to look hard, cool, or of the moment, and some is elitist, as if it is only for those in some imagined club. Poison Oak merely makes music for those who want to have the best time ever, whether flipping out at their shows or wanting a great soundtrack at their fingertips—music made for all the right reasons.
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