Album Review: The Peppermint Kicks - "The Peppermint Kicks"

 

Another band from the oasis of power pop that is Rum Bar records, the Peppermint Kicks hail from New York and feature at least one off duty member of the excellent Watts so the initial prospects for this debut long player from them looked pretty promising.

Unfortunately, it gets off to a bit of a duff start with opening song When Rock 'n' Roll Met Your Dad seriously lacking bite to the extent that it reminds me more than anything of Smokie's Livin' Next Door To Alice which I'm pretty sure wasn't the aim! Happily, the Romantics indebted power pop of Hey Fanzine! drags things back on track before the acoustic led I Don't Hear A Single sounds like a sort of mesh of the first two tracks with a very '50s style feel to it and doesn't quite hit the mark.

Thereafter, this album turns out to be a mixed bag albeit with more good than bad - the "Stray Cats go Merseybeat" style strut of Strawberry Girls and the melodic garage rock of Shag '72 (though listening to it, I think '66 might be nearer the mark) are both well worth a listen and Johnny D's (Play It Again) even has a sort of Ataris/American Heartbreak style wistful power-pop feel to it. On the other hand though, Morning Girls and Roxetta Jones both just feel a bit like they're holding back a bit when they should be storming in with the adrenalin in full flow.

Overall, the Peppermint Kicks have come frustratingly close to delivering a great album here, it just seems to be holding back and being too nice when it should be leaping in with fangs bared to set the audience alight. It's only really on the closing Stones-meets-the-Sweet soundalike Rock 'n' Roll Rampage that they really cut loose properly to show what they're capable of when they take the limiters off. A good album rather than a great one then but there's enough decent moments in here to make it worth a curiosity spin for power pop aficionados. Next time though, I'd like to see the Peppermint Kicks dispense with the niceties a bit more and kick in the doors rather than just politely knocking on them.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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