When I first heard The Yum Yums' new album Poppin' Up Again, I was blown away — not because it was anything unexpected, but because it was everything I had expected yet somehow far more than I had expected. The Yum Yums are one of those rare bands that can get away with making the same kind of album over and over — it would, in fact, be a tremendous disappointment if they didn't! If Morten Henriksen ever began playing jazz riffs or started writing seven-minute songs about late stage capitalism and the inevitability of death, the world would be a far bleaker place. So Poppin' Up Again basically sounds like a Yum Yums album, and of course that's a good thing. But what's remarkable after thirty years plus of this band is that there hasn't been even the slightest decline in quality. 2020's For Those About To Pop! was arguably the best album the band had ever released. For Morten to come back with another batch of songs that's every bit as good is pretty incredible. This is an all-time-great power pop band doing its thing as well as it has ever done it. If you like sugary melodies, crunching guitars, earworm hooks, and timeless lyrics about sweet girls, falling in love, and falling in love with sweet girls, Poppin' Up Again will take you to auditory heaven. How many bands wish they could write 14 songs this good in their entire career? If you want a master class on bubblegum power pop punk rock 'n' roll, school is in session, and your professor is Morten Henriksen!
The Yum Yums' first album Sweet As Candy was a game-changer for me. It was my gateway from the Ramones to the Raspberries and Paul Collins Beat, and ever since then, power pop and pop-punk have lived in my mind as twin siblings with slightly different fashion aesthetics. Little has changed with The Yum Yums in the ensuing 27 years. If anything, this band is an even better version of what it once was — aging like the sweetest fine wine. Poppin' Up Again is a perfect power pop record, and we would expect nothing more or less from the mighty Yum Yums.
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