Those Mockingbirds – “Honest? Honest.”

New Jersey band Those Mockingbirds know how to make a good entrance, as “Honest? Honest.” starts with a guitar riff that sounds at first like a dizzy version of Television’s iconic Marquee Moon and then some other punk band fronted by a broken musicbox – a good way to draw attention. It’s hard to distinguish whether this is an anthem decrying peer pressure, a general comment on hedonistic youth ephemera or a diatribe against drug abuse but either way it will invite some disapproving finger-wagging from parents everywhere, though they may take some comfort in the immaculate punctuation of the song title (Hey, it’s possible!).

It’s easy to like this song. It seems simple enough on the surface but there’s a lot of enjoyable harmonizing and other musical trickery that might not be obvious from the first few listens. It’s a lot wiser than it’s youthful outlook would suggest.

Any fans of power-pop will love this. It’s definitely not distinct from other music of that genre but it still makes for a brilliantly infectious song. The chorus in particular is spectacularly inviting, you’d have to be made of stone or suffering from laryngitis or crippling shyness not to join in and sing along. If you like that sort of group participation then you should be fumbling madly against the computer keyboard now to hear this, it’ll be perfect for you, life-changing almost, to the extent that buying a new pair of shoes changes your life, not a whole lot, but you have much nicer shoes than you did.

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