专辑简介

Sometimes the first riff is enough to tell you everything there is to know about a record, but in Restart's case, at least two riffs are needed to gain a complete understanding of what these flashy-looking Brazilian dudes are up to. Their eponymous album opens with a simple, bouncy, underproduced burst of buzz that makes you think of a demo from some NOFX impersonators having the time of their lives in a family garage, but when the rest of the band joins with "woo-hoos" and straightforward but sleek rhythm work, the music lapses into energetic power pop glory. From there on, it goes exactly the way it promised to: midtempo to fast riffs that are just smart enough to let the songs breathe, cute down-to-earth vocal harmonies, larger-than-life melodies, and an overall feel of pure teenage rock romanticism. The music has so many similarities it makes more sense to say who do Restart not sound like — they're nowhere near as elegant as Gin Blossoms, the prime power pop band of the post-Cheap Trick generation, and they aren't as tight and hook-laden as blink-182, though you get a whiff of primitive pop-punk every now and then. Even the Portuguese lyrics don't give them a lot of identity; in fact, many listeners may not even realize at first what language the band is singing in, and when they do, it won't change much; frankly, you don't need to know the language to understand what this music is all about. The lengthy acoustic closer brings in some variety, but on the whole, Restart's debut is the aural equivalent of watching a couple in grips of puppy love or an air-headed rom-com that Hollywood rolls out during summertime: almost idiotically simple and quickly forgotten while leaving a warm fuzzy after taste that many smarter and more complex records fail to conjure.