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Tinsel Life
Squint
(Independent)

I am rarely pleased with pop-punk because it so often tries to mix ballads with a rendition of MTV’s version of "punk" image. Somewhere the bands seem to forget the emphasis on pop, creating what is often just sappy drivel, a process much better handled by emo. But, fortunately, I will stumble across a band that has just simply figured it out. Squint is one of these bands.

Combining the production of Ed Stasium (of Ramones and Soul Asylum fame) with an ingrained sense of pop melody, this album rolls along with enough steam and hooks to have you craving more before you are even finished listening to it for the first time. Imagine, if possible, the Goo Goo Dolls before they started doing every movie soundtrack ballad … and then listen to this. This band is currently unsigned but all over the CMJ (among others) top 200 across the country. Go to www.squint.com and check them out, so you can say you knew who they were before they got huge.

-- S.R.

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