Tenderhooks reviewed
Tenderhooks
Vidalia
(Rock Snobs)
Knoxville power pop experts Tenderhooks bop through the 10 songs on their debut with an eye fixed on Big Star.
Like their local forerunners Superdrag, there’s a keen muscularity underlining Tenderhooks’ affinity for flowery pop. What they’re free from, however, is Superdrag’s blatant grasp for the brass ring and then the bitterness of being kicked down the stairs. Instead Jake Winstrom can sing lines like “You look so disappointed” with a mocking, dippy nonchalance without ever invoking how unfair life can be. And while there’s a familiarity factor that can be unnerving (“Unscared” is a combo of “Thirteen” and “I’m In Love With A Girl”), but the purity of “Quarter Of A Century” and the smirking “Kidstuff” could become calling cards in a genre that only requires one.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Quarter Of A Century.”
