EP Review: Expert Timing – Whichever, Whatever

Lockdown is now into is sixth month and has been a difficult time for pretty much everyone, this can make you long for something that will brighten you day, and that something has happened to arrive in the shape of Florida’s Bubblegrunge Power Pop outfit Expert Timing who have released their brand new EP “Whichever Whenever” via Count You Lucky Stars Records. Expert Timing is comprised of husband/wife duo of Jeff and Katrina Snyder and drummer Gibran Colbert, they describe their brand of music as infectious, fun and feeling like a summery day, even when they’re heading into serious territory, and that is a recipe for something that offers a temporary reprieve from the social isolation of lockdown.

The “Whichever Whenever” EP is the follow up to their 2018 LP “Glare“, the songs are a little bit tighter and a little more sugary, something that is alleged to help the medicine go down, but Expert Timing  aren’t a band that are afraid to tackle 2020 head on. The opening track ‘Gravity‘ hits you with a poppy but discordant charm, whilst the ironically downbeat ‘Good Things‘ offers an alternative to the sugary overtones of the EP. After the opening one two the sugary note returns on ‘Constant Melody‘, for those wishing for something more urgent ‘Luckin’ Out‘ offers 96 seconds of summery grunge before you hit the EP’s darker finalé ‘My Body‘.

Expert Timing offer a mix of vintage indie and grunge, along with a touch of punk, that is delivered with a disarming and breezy summery charm that encompasses the trio’s competing influences, which are all present, correct and perfectly balanced across the EP’s sixteen minutes. I think the best comparison is that Expert Timing are to grunge what The Dollyrots are to punk, whilst on the surface this is poppy and breezy there is a hard hitting undercurrent to the compositions, a combination that makes them irresistible, it also means that their self bestowed description of ‘bubblegrunge’ is one that suits them perfectly.