Balloon Balloon Balloon, Sharp Pins (7/10)

Kai Slater Kai Slater. The 21 year old Chicagoan released his latest solo album on 11/21/25 w perennial. Tbh while I liked a few of the songs on both Radio DDR and Turtle Rock, I always found the lofi quality a bit too staged and distracting, craving the cleaner sound to hear that acoustic guitar. Ben, though, told me begrudgingly that he thinks Sharp Pins songs are among the best power pop songs being written today, which made me want to listen more closely to this album. And I think he's right that Kai Slater is a genius, though it's well known at this point. These are excellent songs clearly written by a music fanatic drawing from the Beatles to the Beach Boys to GBV and beyond. While the tape hiss still makes it hard for me to want to listen to a lot of these songs on the reg, I absolutely see the value in them. Fav Tracks: Popafangout, (I Wanna) Be Your Girl, Gonna Learn to Crawl, I Don't Adore-Youo