Mike Krol writes crunchy, windows-open, garage-friendly power-pop songs that unfold with maximum efficiency: His last album, 2015’s Turkey, blew by in only 19 minutes. The new, appropriately titled Power Chords is nearly twice as long, but there’s still never a wasted moment. In “I Wonder,” Krol teams up with Allison Crutchfield for a fuzzed-out, wistful, impressively grown-up look back on a relationship that was never meant to be.
Power Chords, Mike Krol’s new Merge release, It traces Krol’s journey back to punk rock, harnessing both the guitar technique and the musical redemption referenced in its title. He’s wielding the same influences—Misfits, The Strokes, early Weezer, Ramones—but turning up the gravity and the gain. Indeed, Krol has gone somewhere new; yes, he bludgeoned himself with over-analysis and self-loathing, but along the way he stumbled upon a trove of intricate guitar lines and artfully mutating melodies.
Music ruined Krol’s life. And then saved it. In chronicling that process, Krol has made his best record—painful, voyeuristic, and angry, but ultimately transcendent and timeless. It is the sound of Krol giving in to a force greater than himself, as though the chords are playing him rather than the other way around.
From the album Power Chords, out January 25th, 2019 on Merge Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 