Teenage Symphonies is more catchy, more aggressive, and more appealing than your Wavves or Best Coast album. The choruses induce sing-alongs whether or not you know what they’re saying, and will get stuck in your head no matter what. The drummer lets loose like a cannon, the guitars meld perfectly with the vocals, and will find yourself humming the riffs as you walk down the street later in the day.

On Teenage Symphonies, you also hear homage to styles that seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. In “Paradise, DC” you can hear direct influence to shoegaze bands, taking the sound of pre-Loveless My Bloody Valentine and bringing it back to life and pumping it with electricity and punk attitude.

The album really picks up after the track “Paradise DC,” not only in the variety of the songs, but in that the energy is kicked up a notch with each track. Some guitar riffs are drowned out leading the listener to believe that they may have actually blown out their equipment while recording “Zig Zag.” Great leads to keep you hooked, but fuzzed out enough to keep you wanting more.

Teenage Symphonies is a new direction for their sound compared to where they were a year ago, and it is much more mature, refined, and pleasing to any fan of punk or shoegaze. And don’t be surprised if towards the end of the album’s catchiest song, “Broadcast News,” you think you hear the flute riff from Talking Head’s “Naïve Melody” beneath everything, because it is there. It will confuse you and leave you wondering, Did they forget they had that song playing in the studio while they did the take?

(Don Giovanni Records, PO Box 628, Kingston, NJ 08528)