The Easy Button - Lost On Purpose

 

I adore Tampa's The Easy Button. The band is masterful in the way they weave their jaunty Power Pop with a real lyrical intelligence. Power Pop is often denigrated for the nonsense from fans who want to label it as one thing and the banality of the I Love You, Yes I Do, You Know Its True lyrics.

So when you hear an album like Lost On Purpose, you realise that the genre doesn't have to be like that. It can be varied and still charming. Power Pop should be fun and this is. 9 songs that all sound the same and a ballad is a template that too many use.

The Easy Button's base is very second half of the Nineties. A Fountains Of Wayne or Weezer vibe springs to mind, but there is far more variation to what they do than simple Guitar Pop. For instance, Ansty (Heavy Weather) edges right into Country with its hypnotic twang.

There is real thought and construction put into the songs, but if you want something riff driven, this lot can do that. Most people spent lockdown either moaning or strumming on an acoustic guitar. The Easy Button spent it perfecting these songs to offer up one hell of an album.

There are 22 songs here and I realise that is a lot of listening, All I can convince you of is that the quality rarely drops and variety is the keyword. You want Slacker Pop Rock, you have Forever Is OK With Me. You want intelligent jaunty Pop, you have When I'm Blue. You want something slower and moody, you have ReRun.

I can't tell you about all 22 songs, but there are some that deserve special mentions. Photograff is a belter of a song about a fictitious band, very Bleu, even more The Major Labels. It is so great that I'm gonna make Bleu aware of it. 

Learning To Drive is a slower affair, yet despite its melancholic vibe, it is incredibly melodic with a big harmonic chorus. The opening instrumental, BliSStered, is an unusual thing to start an album, but it is a joyous couple of minutes.

Finally, for all this variation, the song that hooked me most is She Doesn't Live There Anymore. It is more straight ahead and riff driven than most of the rest here, but it has everything in it that a pop song should including a great guitar solo.

A couple of the songs don't really work, but 20 / 22 is a top notch grade. I also consider Brian Jones to be one of the great unrecognised Pop Songwriters. Lost On Purpose is outstanding at what it does. Highly Recommended and definitely a contender for Album Of The Year.

You can listen to and buy the album here. Note the special package of 12 song LP, full CD, Bonus CD and download for just 25 dollars. You can also listen at the places in this link. 

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