Middle States Have A Happy Fun Party

Middle States are a band that makes music that bands just don't make anymore. You're probably scratching your head going, "Huh?" Well, this foursome creates power pop from an era when alternative music was just breaking and bands like Gin Blossoms were bigger than sliced bread. Their album, Happy Fun Party is a like a long lost album from 1991 that somehow found itself in the middle of 2009.

With plenty of choppy riffs, hyper drumming, and choruses that are so big that Andre the Giant (nice 80's/90's reference, eh?) seems small by comparison, Middle States are far from being middle of the road. Happy Fun Party soars with these elements in tune and very rarely slows down to catch it's breath. It's a jittery, nervous, record that's self loathing and yearning for something more while getting everything it wants.

After listening this to a couple of times you'll begin to think that Middle States went to the Matthew Sweet school of rock and graduated with honors. Their songs are sticky and memorable and loaded with enough power chords to energize a small city. Mr. Sweet and much of the class of 1991-92 would be proud to know that their legacy lives on.

From the sheepish chorus of Ba Ba Ba on, "No Curse, No Drunk, No Fight," and the building spikiness of, "Winds of Eiderdown," Happy Fun Party is a tapestry of well constructed power pop charmers that will bring back floods of memories to anyone who was around when alternative broke. If you weren't around then, Happy Fun Party will open a whole new world of how good things in the 90's actually were. No matter what era your from or what year the Middle States appear to be from, this band has a great album on their hands and Happy Fun Party comes highly recommended.