SOFTJAW's 'Love Can't Kill You' Is the Most Satisfying 32 Minutes of Power Pop This Year
Here is the cleanest recommendation we can make this week. No Ripcord’s David Coleman gave Love Can’t Kill You an 8 out of 10 and wrote that “genre enthusiasts will surely struggle to find a more satisfying 32 minutes of new music this year.” The band’s own description — “Cheap Trick guitars and Teenage Fanclub harmonies with a dash of The Exploding Hearts energy” — is for once completely accurate, and the record is out on Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records with no fanfare whatsoever.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Joel Jasper plays bass on nine of the twelve tracks, and the unusual thing is how melodic it stays without crowding the guitars — Wyatt Blair’s mix carves a real midrange pocket for it. Justin Ivey’s drums are close-miked and dry, snare-forward, almost no room on the kit.
The Spatial Dynamics: Dustin Lovelis recorded the album at his own Dream Machine Studios in Long Beach, and Bart Thurber’s master keeps everything wide but unsmoothed. Lovelis and Tanner Duffy play nearly every instrument between them, which is why the harmony stacks sit so tightly — Raven Sings The Blues noted they’re “layering harmonies with the best of ’em.”
Standout Performance
Brian Andrews, who appears on exactly two tracks and justifies both: piano on opener “You May Be Right” and Wurlitzer on closer “Flying High.” Bookending a power pop record with keyboard colour is a small arrangement decision that makes thirty-two minutes feel structured instead of merely stacked.
Why It’s Certified
⚡ The songwriting is split clean down the middle — Duffy wrote six, Lovelis the other six — and you cannot hear the seam.
🌈 “Poor Disguise” and “I Know You Do” both clear in under two and a half minutes and still feel complete.
⚡ Pop Rock Record’s Dennis Pilon put it plainly: the album “demonstrates there’s still a lot of gas in the power pop tank.”
Raven Sings The Blues says they “more than make good on the promises cast in their early works.” Twelve songs, no misses. Certified great.