The Stroppies: Levity (2022)

Here's another new one I'm into (and something much more up my alley). Australian indie rockers The Stroppies have been around for a few years now, mining a classic jangle-buzz indie rock sound that owes a big debt to New Zealand's 80s Flying Nun Kiwi rock scene, particularly the Clean, the Bats, and Look Blue, Go Purple (with both male and female vocalists). They fit in nicely alongside modern-day indie evangelists like Salad Boys, Kiwi Jr., and Ducks Ltd.

The new one leaves some of their earlier, shaggy lo-fi recordings aside with an ever-so-slightly more polished sound. Lead-off track "The Perfect Crime," with its odd vocal loop at the start, is particularly radio-friendly (at least in an alternate universe where cool music gets heard on the radio). The next tune (my personal fave), "Smilers Strange Politely," is a fizzy, scrappy delight more in line with their prior records, sounding like a great lost Flying Nun classic. A few other stand-outs land in that same zone, most notably "Material Condition," "Up To My Elbows," and "Figure Eights."

You can find it on Bandcamp.

Here's the video for "The Perfect Crime":

...and "Smilers":