When Kentucky-based rockers
Sleeper Agent
emerged in 2011 with their debut,
Celabrasion
, they sported a scrappy sound full of pop-punk hookiness clothed in lo-fi garage production. It was a sound that worked for the six-piece band, lending some character to its songs, which seemed to pack a lot of ideas into short three-minute bursts. Three years and many tours later, the band returns with its major-label follow-up, 2014's
About Last Night
. Working again with producer
Jay Joyce
(
the Wallflowers
,
Cage the Elephant
),
, led by frontwoman
Alex Kandel
, still pack a lot of pop punch but with softer edges, cleaner arrangements, and wholly more modern production values, making for a more diverse second effort. Lead single "Waves" sparkles with melody in the grand singalong style of more folk-based contemporaries like
Of Monsters and Men
. Likewise, tracks like "Take It Off" amp up the band's more mainstream pop-punk elements. While
seems to bounce around from style to style, there are certainly some unique results from this experimentation. The mostly acoustic closer, "Sweetheart," is an unexpected Latin-influenced pop song with stacked harmonies, and the excellent "Impressed" harks back to the melodic punk of their first album.
shows that
have melodies and ideas to spare, and the album's more mainstream approach shows their willingness to evolve. ~ Timothy Monger