Radical Dads’ Mega Rama [8.5]

There’s a phenomenon I call faux-nostalgia. By this, I don’t mean affectation or artists trying too hard to capture the spirit of a time or place. I mean the feeling of memory brought about by a brand new piece of music. Radical Dads (@radicaldads), who have gotten a great deal of press for being “90s influenced”, easily summoned this feeling for me on first listen. From Mega Rama’s very first song, “Little Tomb”, the mournful backing vocals delivered the sort of melody that is immediately familiar and invokes memories of youth.

“Little Tomb” is also, like the whole album, suffused with a constant mixture of the forlorn and the joyous. The guitars of the song are punchy, the drums are loud and driving, and Lindsay Baker shouts her lyrics with what sounds like wild abandon. If you listen closely to the song, though, the previously mentioned backing vocals, keyboard riffs and lyrics are blended with a certain sadness.  Lines such as “I’ve been waiting out here since the attack” and “We are waiting out the end of the time” invite a certain dark analysis.

“Walking Wires” also has a shoegaze style combination of rocking, noisy drums and guitars along with heartbreaking vocals designed for both dancing and musing about broken hearts. The opening  words on “New Age Dinosaur” are “I remember”, and though the chorus enthuses that “the future is now”, the song’s lyrics seem to describe the early stages of an old romance — generally a sweetly painful memory. The song is filled with huge, happy noises and hooks while maintaining the remembrances and sweet melancholy found throughout Mega Rama.

“No New Faces” is my favorite song and also the quietest on the album.  The drums boom, but gently, the guitars are chiming without the feedback and the vocals are sweet. Achingly pretty and without a distance between the audience, this track is the perfect palate cleanser to the rest of the album.  By removing the fuzz and the noise the band bears itself fully on this song, making the rest of the album all the more rich.

The feeling of memory Mega Rama invokes immediately allows it to become familiar in a way that takes most albums several listens. If you’re looking for something punky and loud, you’ve found it.  If you dig hooks and sweet vocals, Radical Dads is your bag.