The Benjamins shamelessly display all things great and endlessly endearing about power pop: instantly digestible melodies; short and tuneful solos; bottom-heavy distorted fuzz bass; a pounding backbeat; multiple layers of guitar crunch; harmonic bliss; and lyrics of love lost, love found, and love unrequited. Delivered in a devil-may-care attitude with heart in hand and tongue in cheek, the Benjamins' youthful exuberance crashes through with the force of a teenage sunami. "Sophia on the Stereo" is an aural paean to
the Cars that symbolically opens with the scratchy sounds of a car radio before giving way to the onslaught of noodling synthesizer riffs, "uh-oh" backing vocals, the always reliable I-IV-V chord progression, and lyrics imbedded in the tradition of late-'70s new wave. In "Couch," a paint-by-numbers
Cheap Trick tribute, Jay Stys comically pines, "Molly Ringwald, me and you, 16 candles, lonely summers." The Art of Disappointment is a pop/rock joyride without filler. ~ Tom Semioli