Next time that one dickhead is telling you he never listens to an album made after1978, give him a polite nudge in Young Rival’s direction.

I say that at the risk of falsely situating what this blazingly talented Hamilton power-pop trio does for a living in rock ‘n’ roll’s past, which is emphatically not where it should be situated. Despite its outwardly classicist stance, YoungRival’s disciplined blend of barroom raucousness, sculpted neo-New Wave angularity and harmonious British-Invasion frivolity is upfront and aggressive and knowledgeably “meta”-without-irony in a manner that’s thoroughly “now.”

YoungRival does, however, harbour an informed reverence for popular-music history that makes it an indie-rock act capable of winning over audiences that might ordinarily turn a deaf ear to indie-rock. Here’s a hard-tourin’,down-to-business threesome that hits all of the time-honoured marks a “real”rock ‘n’ roll band is supposed to hit.

If you value songwriting, melody and musicianly chops in their most timeless forms,though, you’ll find much to love here.

This album was produced with just enough scruffiness by Fucked Up /Tokyo Police Club producer Jon Drew and was released in North America in october 2012 on Sonic Unyon (canadian label of the Pixies, Jesus Lizard, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie or Eric’s Trip)

There’s a whiff of early “beat” groups to the brisk, endearingly adolescent earworms“Black Popcorn” and “Two Reasons,” a bit of Nuggets-era brashness to “I Don’tCare” and “Better Things to Do.” “Let It Go,” meanwhile, adds a touch of Clash-esque dubspace to the Young Rival palette, while “Lost” sprawls psychedelically in a way nothing the band has recorded has sprawled before.“Night Song,” for its part, is a decidedly sweet puppy-love ballad that feels beamed in from a more innocent age.

The only real guideline – besides writing songs that were genuinely fun to play in front of a crowd – the band set for itself going in was to make “a collection of the best songs we’d ever done together,” says D’Alesio.

It’s mission to conjure a bunch of “undeniable tunes” accomplished, Young Rival will now take to the road in earnest to make sure as many people in as many ports of call that will have it get to hear them the way they’re meant to be heard: on the live stage.

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The Canadian garagebros show flashes of Zombies and Big Star, butfiltered through something decidedly more..."out there."

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