From Kansas City, MO comes Radkey, a pop-punk rock trio of brothers, Dee, Solomon, and Isaiah, who wear their hearts and influences on their sleeves. Having seemingly consumed a healthy diet of Chicago punk, the Ramones, and the Foo Fighters, their latest album, Bedroom Sand, is eight songs in under twenty-five minutes of rock and roll bliss that hit all the right notes. This record is short and punchy, and aesthetically filling. Let’s dig in.
An eight-song album sometimes feels slapped together: too long to be an EP, but not long enough to be a full-length. Sometimes it can feel too lean. However, there’s just enough fat on these songs to keep them from feeling overindulgent, even if its track count leaves you wanting more. Bedroom Sand opens with a track that puts it all out on front street: big drums, riffs, and high energy, “Victory.”
A fantastic start to an album that surprised me in many different spots. Taking a page from the Dave Grohl playbook, you would think that the band had spent all their energy on that first track, but this train keeps moving. Radkey pivots to the steady one-two punch of punk rock that is “Falling Out of Grace” and “Welcome to the Backyard.” The first side closes with the bouncy and poppy album-titled track, “Bedroom Sand.” It may taper off the sound a bit, but it’s a good breather that serves as a thematic midpoint serving as a tonal pivot before jumping into the rest of the album.
Side two is just as solid as side one. Opening with “Strays,” a sort of love song for the unloved about the band’s many rescue cats, Radkey managed to subvert expectations but still deliver a track that delivers on what it proposed. There seems to be this underlying feeling that the band doesn’t feel good enough, but “Return to the Sky” and “The Heartless” definitely prove that theory wrong. The record closes with the surfy lo-fi burnout anthem, “Ready to Burn.” It would be a weird song to end the album on, energy-wise, if it wasn’t a great capper to a tight record. Feelings of being outsiders are peppered through Bedroom Sand, but it’s very clear their voice and sound is more than welcome.
Radkey’s Bedroom Sand is a great record. On top of the influences listed above, there are fingerprints all over the record from bands like Squeeze, Hüsker Dü, and the Cars. Lyrics take inspiration from the anime they consume to the feelings of embarrassment at being the worst person in your friend group. Its condensed track list and big sound make this pick a no-brainer. Eight tracks represent a band who clearly put work and love into their craft. The proof is in the record itself. While the band is definitely ready for the radio, we’re lucky to have them here in punk rock. Radkey’s Bedroom San is out now on Little Man Records.