Protex has released an excellent new album that hardly anyone seems to be talking about. I'm rather shocked by the lack of fanfare for what is truly a top-notch release from a band that helped define power pop/punk music as we know it. Wicked Ways, which was released earlier this summer on Bachelor Records, was recently made available on Bandcamp. If you're a fan of Protex or power pop in general, you really need to hear this album. While Aidan Murtagh is the only original member in this current lineup, Wicked Ways is 100% a vintage Protex release. It finds Murtagh teaching a master class in power pop/punk songwriting. There's nothing fancy going on here: just one near-perfect punchy three-minute love song after another. Who would expect (or want) anything different from Protex? And this is not one of those cases of "It's pretty good for an old band." This album can hang with the best of what's out there in today's power pop world. Murtagh might be the last man standing from the golden era of Protex, but he has definitely found the right players to keep the band going strong. Don't sleep on Wicked Ways!
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