Summer Of The Mosquito

Landing plumb in the sweet spot where jangle and power-pop collide, guitars are cranked and vocal harmonies laid on thicker than pomegranate molasses. Although the name may suggest otherwise, Monnone Alone are a bona fide pop group based around the sagacious songwriting of Mark Monnone (ex-Lucksmiths) and featuring members of A-grade pop tinkerers Architecture in Helsinki, Mid-State Orange and Aleks & the Ramps. That's almost as bona fide as it gets. That Mark Monnone has gathered a tight cohort of likeminded pop-obsessed classic rockers to build his second album speaks further to the nostalgia contained within; Monnone's former Lucksmiths bandmate Louis Richter's joyous and dynamic 12-string guitar serves as the perfect foil to Monnone's unfussy strum and unruly outbursts of fuzz, while Gus Franklin and Joe Foley, on drums and bass respectively, are having a rollicking good choogle but manage to stay the course when things get bumpy.