Live A Little
Ashmont Records

It’s all too easy to make giant, sweeping statements in CD reviews. That said, damn if Pernice Brothers aren’t making some of the best pop out there.

“Live A Little,” the band’s sixth full-length album, shines with brilliant, sparkling adornment and smart arrangements. Guitars jangle and chime under frontman and songwriter Joe Pernice’s intimate vocals on songs like “Automation,” which bops along with ease and delivers the kind of pay-off chorus that any self-proclaimed pop band should be able to write. Little twists and turns, Beatle-y guitar parts, percussion, mellotron, strings, horns and, most of all, great lyrics make sure this album won’t get old fast—if ever.

“Somerville” belies its impatient subject with more pop shimmer and Pernice’s deadpan pitch. “I’m sick of the cynical,” he sings on the song, “I’m sick of the fashion show—the vapid and overblown someone / someone tells me I ought’a know.”

“Microscopic View” features the kind of simple, yet profound melody that could only have been plucked from the ether. Sparse accompaniment gives way to the cinematic.

Pernice pens rich lyrics whose layers reveal more with each listen. I guess his MFA in poetry isn’t going to waste. Being in the revered Scud Mountain Boys was a damn good start, too. (The Scuds’ “Grudge F***” makes an encore appearance on this set.)

Pernice and his band—James Walbourne, Patrick Berkery, Peyton Pinkerton, and yes, Joe’s brother Bob Pernice—offer 12 damn good songs on this CD with nary a stinker in the lot. Bad Finger, Costello and Teenage Fanclub fans rejoice, this album rules.