The New Rochelles – It’s New

Giving The New Rochelle’s debut album, It’s New, a listen is like nibbling on a bag of Halloween candy.  One moment you’re chomping into a mouth watering Oh Henry, and the next your scarffing down a rainbow of Skittles.  You can enjoy all your favourite tastes without ever worrying about overdosing on a single flavour.  In a similar vein, The New Rochelles jams twelve pop punk tunes into a quick and satisfying sub-fifteen-minute platter of sonic goodies.

Without a single track exceeding a minute and a half, It’s New thrusts listeners into a whirlwind of super catchy Ramones style pop punk.  Heavy on melody and sequenced three-chord repetition, songs like “Who Will (I Will)” and their self-affirming opening theme “Go Go New Row!” bombard listeners with simple riffs that sound as if lifted right from the The Methodones, The Copyrights, The Riptides, or (especially) The Lillingtons’ catalogues.  In fact, it’s probably the closest thing I’ve heard to latter in quite some time (hint: that’s a very good thing).

Topics of conversation are just as fleeting as the music that delivers it.  “I fell victim to a static shock, cause I’ve got carpet and I wear socks, I’m running around, I’m rubbing the floor, I’m getting shocked when I touch the door” sings Ronnie Rochelle with a classic nasally pitch on the smart and trivial tagline of the aptly titled “Static Shock.”  These are songs about life’s little moments.  You know, the things you typically just shrug off?  Well, that’s It’s New.  The New Rochelles hunt down and hatch the unexpected from the mundane.

Like that bag of Halloween candy, It’s New is incredibly addictive, and akin to a fulfilling snack, you’ll never regret bursting through all twelve songs in a single sitting.  The New Rochelles might not bring anything terribly new to the table, but their balance of witty, concise tunes defines them against the crowd.  Only time will tell where their creativity will find them next.