Waiting for 2020

What's that you say? "The punk album of 2019"? Ahhh, c'mon man, it's way too early for grand statements like that. What, you think you can make this claim? Just because Vancouver trio Corner Boys have managed to mesh the finest elements of Good Vibrations heroes like Rudi, Protex, and (sure) The Undertones with the buzzsaw power-pop of their city forefathers, the Pointed Sticks? Just because songs like "(I'm Such A) Mess" flow so effortlessly into your consciousness that you'll start wondering how your brain ever functioned without 'em? Hell, just because this might just be a perfectly-executed example of the sort of spiky, addictively essential treat you started to wonder if you would ever hear again? Waiting For 2020 follows a duo of excellent singles - 2017's Just Don't Care and 2018's Love Tourist - and it doesn't just pick up where they left off, it does what you always hope the follow-up to an opening salvo will do. It takes the promise they set forth and does way more than merely deliver on it, instead providing us with hook after hook and pogo-worthy pop classic after pogo-worthy pop classic.