There may be a long list of reasons why it sucks to be a human in the year 2026, but a lack of good music is certainly not one of them. The quality of the releases coming out this year continues to blow me away, and it has been an especially notable year for guitar pop.
Goodbye Summertime, the second album from Oakland-based The Goods, is up there with the best of 2026's many long-playing power pop-ish treasures. Largely a solo endeavor from Rob Good,
Goodbye Summertime is a stunning work suitable for anyone who loves melody and great songwriting. It pulls from a wide array of influences (Beatles, Brian Wilson, '60s psych and baroque pop, '70s AM radio, '80s/'90s indie pop) that all fall under the umbrella of timeless pop music. It adds all sorts of layers to the band's core sound while still keeping the hooks at the forefront. The album's release in the midst of the transition from summer to fall was surely no coincidence. This is the ultimate fall record: a gentle, melancholy set of songs that seems tailor-made for cozy rainy day lounging and solitary walks with just a touch of chill in the air.
Much of the magic of Goodbye Summertime lies in its inspiration. Rob Good didn't just write this record; he lived it. "My whole life turned upside down one summer, " he says. "The long-term relationship I was in collapsed, and in the wake of that, I found new love. I was sorting through the grief and failure of my previous relationship and the bliss and anxiety of my new one all at once—all while basically living at my recording studio—and I found myself in an intensely creative state." I love it when songwriters tell their stories, and this story in particular is one I'm feeling deeply.
Great albums have been written about painful breakups. Great albums have been written about of the thrills and joy of finding new love. But what happens when both things happen concurrently? It's hard to imagine the range of emotions you'd go through and how complicated it would be to process all of that and still be able to function. With this record, though, you don't have to imagine. You experience it vicariously through these remarkable songs. It was as if all that upheaval in Good's life gave him creative superpowers. These songs are absolutely gorgeous, and the bittersweet vibe feels like real life. There's sadness and regret, but there's also optimism and the embracement of what's new. Good doesn't overdramatize anything. He just plays and sings from the heart. And his talent is truly formidable. It's not just the songwriting but also the production and musicianship that shine. Good's guitar work, in particular, is extraordinary. And his longtime collaborators Cherron Arens, Yea-Ming Chen, and Ian McBrayer lend their talents to several songs. Across 14 tracks, there are no subpar moments or unrealized ideas. Every tune is a gem. And it never hurts to have a legend like Bart Thurber mixing and mastering a record!
Goodbye Summertime is such a relatable album because we can all remember a time when one door closed for us, and then another one opened. Rob Good has taken his own story and practically written a novel in songs. Beyond the personal narrative, the album really does capture that end-of-the-summer feeling where you're wistfully looking back at what has gone and turning a corner to what's coming next. At this very moment, I'm contemplating how yet another summer has passed me by while I was too busy to notice. Change is an unavoidable part of life, and even when it's good change, it takes some getting used to. That's why this record hits so hard. It builds off the broader style of power pop and pushes the boundaries of what it can be without losing sight of why we all love this kind of music. Someday, we're going to look back at 2026 and marvel that Music City's
Welcome To Music City, Mod Lang's
Borrowed Time, and The Lemon Twigs'
Look For Your Mind! all came out in the same year.
Goodbye Summertime needs to be on that list as well. This is a marvelous, masterful guitar pop record. It's available now on vinyl and CD from Dandy Boy Records.
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