Dude, admit it: you miss the 90s. Vintage sneakers, Elastica on the radio, plaid everything. I wore fishnets and too much eyeshadow in a quest (not yet fully abandoned) to be Shirley Manson. It was the best of rock and roll times. So when I hear a record that hearkens back to those days, I can’t help but like it — enter Campista Socialista, the second release from Ottawa’s Camp Radio.

On Campista Socialista, Camp Radio has taken the best parts of the power pop genre and mastered them: the jangle-fuzz guitar, the catchy melodies and sad-bastard lyrics, the beat that makes your suede Pumas bounce. They’ve layered them masterfully, in the proper proportions and with just the right amount of careless ease. It fizzes, it hops, and it sticks in your head: it’s rock and roll candy at its finest.

Opening track “The Girl Who Stole My Motorbike” sets the mood right away with Gin Blossoms guitars and girl problems. “I Have Designs” is full of tightly wound drums and anxious lyrics: “I want to act quickly / And show you everything you need / But that seems a lot right now…. And I wonder why I’m sick to face tomorrow.” “Cosmic Fair” has an appropriately spaced-out fuzz; “Turn Up The Radio” floats on an irresistible rising cadence that will, if you’ll pardon the sledgehammer of obviousness, make you follow its instructions.

Admission: these guys aren’t breaking any new ground. Any one of these songs could have come off the Empire Records soundtrack — but I love that. And there’s value in taking something good and doing it great. Together the members of Camp Radio - Frontman Chris Page, bassist Dave Draves, and drummer Scott Terry - have around fifty collective years’ experience in the rock biz, and this experience allows them to create some of the tightest and best-crafted power pop that’s being made today.

Camp Radio - The Girl Who Stole My Motorbike by killbeat music