This band manages to take up all the space they can with their mixture of JESUS AND MARY CHAIN dissonance and SONIC YOUTH meets BIG COUNTRY melody. The instrumental on the flip is one of the most incredible production jobs I’ve heard in a long time.
The OWNERS play pop punk so smooth, so harmonious, it veers into power pop territory. The squeaky-clean sound on their self-titled LP contrasts a bit with their world-weary, jaded presentation, but it’s not a dealbreaker or anything. The vocalist has a big, swing-for-the-fences style, which gets a workout since most songs break the two-minute mark. That length made me feel like they lost steam at a certain point. I mean, it’s not Hidden World, but still, punk favors brevity. The lyrics often have a real story to tell and it’s easy to get swept away by the rants and reminiscences.
