Meet the best power-pop band in America right now: Sugar Stems.
A year and a half ago, the Milwaukee quartet knocked it out of the park on “Can’t Wait,” its excellent second album.
Since then, Sugar Stems have emphasized the power side of power-pop, beefing up their sound, turning up the guitars and adding keyboard player Andy Harris for “Only Come Out at Night.”
The results captivate from start to finish.
Lead vocalist and chief songwriter Betsy Heibler continues to write smart, tuneful songs and sing them with passion. She also sings them with impressive forcefulness here, her voice rising above the often glorious roar created by her bandmates.
The selections range from wall-of-sound stormers such as “Baby Teeth” and the ultra-catchy “Radio Heartthrob” to the 1960s girl-group update “Some Might Say,” which eerily resembles some long-lost Brill Building Goffin-King classic.
The band’s ensemble guitar work repeatedly takes center stage here, most notably on the ringing, robust “We Only Come Out at Night.” It’s the album’s best and most exciting track.
Then there’s the harmony-laden “Sun Rise, Sea Change,” which sets its wondrous chorus amid a bed of jangling guitars.
Heibler steps to the forefront on the closer, “Million Miles,” her echo-bathed vocals accompanied chiefly by strummed acoustic guitars and Harris’ keyboards. Her powerful performance brings both warmth and a sense of mystery to this minor-chord ballad. It’s a stunner, as is the whole album.
Sugar Stems will appear at a free show at the Mission Tobacco Lounge, a block away from the Mission Inn in Riverside, on Tuesday and at a regular ticketed show at the Redwood Bar in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday.
