The Loved Ones

The Loved Ones may have started out as a (really, really great) Kid Dynamite/Lifetime sound-alike band but with their second full-length release, they’re cementing a sound that, while obviously owing to those titans of melodic hardcore, is very much their own. There’s as much Bouncing Souls as Bruce Springsteen on Build & Burn, a record that succeeds in bounding through its three-minute pop punk compositions with all the energy of a New Brunswick basement show and all the humour and insight of a Billy Bragg concert. "Pretty Good Year” is a powerhouse of an opener, an effortless piece of pop music that sounds as earnest as what the best American hardcore has to offer, while "I Swear” finishes things off with a gritty, pre-sell-out Against Me! verse and rousing, anthemic chorus that contains some of the record’s strongest hooks. The road between the two is just as good, if not better.