Lost Time,
Tacocat's third album, is the Seattle quartet's crispest, most focused yet. Their punky pop is delivered with a punch, the guitars have some serious bite, and the rhythm section hits hard. Their previous album,
NVM, was a fun bubblegum confection;
Lost Time is punk to the core. It's tough to be more hardcore than hating the weekend, it's seriously outsider to (quite correctly) extol the merits of Scully when everyone still loses their stuff over Mulder, and banning
R.E.M. from night swimming parties is exactly the right thing to do if you want to keep it real. They also take time out to quickly bash dudes who feel the need to explain everything to women, talk about girls who love horses (over a chugging glam rock beat), and quit the Internet -- all with loud guitars, quick tempos, and lots of energy. Anyone who really liked the poppier aspects of
NVM shouldn't be too worried though; there's plenty of shiny pop in their gritty punk. The record sounds like a collection of singles, each as catchy as the last. Their vocal harmonies and sticky guitar riffs, and Emily Nokes' powerful vocals, make everything sound good, with tracks like "FDP," "I Hate the Weekend," and the super-fun "Horse Grrls" sounding like mixtape staples. The handclap-heavy, almost lilting "Leisure Bees" is an album highlight and ends the too-short album with style. Adding more noise and toughness to their sound on
Lost Time was a genius move, taking an already very good band and pointing it toward greatness, or at the very least helping
Tacocat make one of the most fun punk-pop albums around. [
Lost Time was also released on LP.] ~ Tim Sendra