New Glow

Over the course of a decade, four albums, and uncountable miles of touring, Matt and Kim have made a good career out of powerhouse drums, cheesy synths, impassioned vocals, and songs that get pulses racing and feet moving. Like a toybox punk-pop dance machine that will stop working forever if it stops moving just once, they always seem like they're in a rush to get the song they are playing over with so they can jump feet-first into the next one. Their fifth album, New Glow, has a solid core of songs like that, but Matt and Kim also stretch out into modern mainstream pop territory on a few songs, drop some hip-hop beats, and even end the album on a straight-up ballad. ~ Tim Sendra