Consumer Guide Album

Too Much Joy: Mistakes Were Made [People Suck Music, 2021]
Grade hedged because in the decades since I praised two of their early albums (and panned and then missed the next three), I've come to owe two of these brainy, aging postpunks--singer Tim Quirk hired me to republish old Consumer Guide reviews in Formerly Rhapsody's early years and bassist Sandy Smallens co-produces my podcast. Which I hope frees me to report that every song on their first album in two decades is smart, most are funny, and many are catchy. Choicest cuts: anti-Trump "Something to Think About," pre-Biden "Blinding Light of Love," Google-seeking "Oliver Plunkett's Head," post-abusive "Uncle Watson Wants to Think," virtual "Flux Capacitor," and best-for-last the lonely, connubial "Not Being You." Randy Newman meets the Clash? Nah--those two are genius where Too Much Joy just have high IQs. But that goal continues to spur them on. B+