Love Sign

Free Energy's 2010 debut was a retro-rock memory of the Ford administration from Clinton-weaned indie-rock guys – like Thin Lizzy if they'd been influenced by Stephen Malkmus rather than vice versa. The follow-up moves the nostalgia dial to that hair-feathering, creepy tank-top-wearing end-of-the-Seventies moment when AOR rock, Cali soft rock, disco and New Wave melted into the same pot of fool's gold. Songs like "Dance All Night" and "Girls Want Rock" could get wink-wink annoying if they weren't so crisp and catchy, or if singer Paul Sprangers didn't convincingly sound like a neon-sweatband stud who has no idea that he's soon to be ground into cocaine traces by his rock & roll fantasy.