Warm Soda – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
As welcome a constant as a big hug when you need it most, Warm Soda’s fourth and final LP, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, may be saying goodbye with more honest-to-goodness power-pop, but it’s doing it with confidence and a smile on its face. Some of this may be due to effervescent frontman Matthew Melton having a new project alongside his wife under his belt already (his heavy Dream Machine debut is coming soon on Castle Face and it’s sure to be one hell of a dark party when it gets here), but he knows too that there’s plenty of fun to be had by milking the most out of your youth and I Don’t Wanna Grow Up plays out with exactly that in mind.
It’s also the literal call and response to Colleen Green’s I Want To Grow Up as a result. Sure, it may be melancholy in places, pining that “In all the world” everything he wants “is that girl” on the opener (not to mention other girls elsewhere), but considering Melton’s marital status he surely doesn’t mean everything he says. No, it’s more about being in and out of love in general than in love with anyone in particular. Not that that’ll stop some of these fuzzy throwaways snagging the heart strings of those currently under the influence of cupid’s keen prick. Not one bit.
Twelve tracks that pass in thirty minutes, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up is a blend of camp 50s rock ‘n’ roll and garage-pop, “Don’t Leave Me For Another Guy” even bringing to mind Seth Bogart and his Hunx, Melton’s insecurities given strength here in melodic guitar form. Oh, and man does Melton still know how to write a chorus and this is an album full of them. “Tell Me Your Story” has one of the best he’s even written and “Tell Me In A Whisper” has another one, billowing around The Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s own indie dancefloor in a big, flouncy shirt. Neat guitars abound too, just as they always have done, coalescing on “Don’t Stop Now” into a buzzing wig-out and on “Game Of Undefined Love” into something close to space-rock. Look no further, though, than the title track for an absolute peach of infectious guitar-pop that you’ll be able to treasure forever. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up may be drawing the curtain on Warm Soda as a band, but it more than ensures they’ll stay forever young in the process.
Best track: “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”
~I Don’t Wanna Grow Up is released April 21st 2017 via Castle Face.~