Arlo

Conjuring a prototypical underage Saturday afternoon in the city, Arlo strains its sunshine-drenched power pop through a gritty colander of Gen-X smog, then magically regurgitates it as pure retro pleasure. Having mastered the arcane art of writing hooks hypnotic and muscular enough to charm a cobra, the Los Angeles band paints a vivid universe of friends and cars, Slurpees and bus stops, plus some nebulous oversized monsters just to see if you’re paying attention. Arlo sounds like a lot of other bands; luckily they’re good bands–Nirvana, the Beatles and Weezer all make figurative guest appearances, causing weird and amusing looks of recognition to flicker across the faces of music geeks when first exposed to the band’s second album, Stab the Unstoppable Hero. With blond front man Nate Greely’s voice taking on a smoky Cobain growl, “Runaround” is a pitiless juggernaut of sugared perfection, exploding into an unfathomably catchy chorus topped off with an excited yelp à la McCartney–and then all of a sudden you’re amazed to find yourself inexplicably listening to The Oneders from That Thing You Do! Like a big bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal, this music is both decadently sweet and somehow solid enough to feel like real food.