NEON TREES - HABITS (LP)

Neon Trees Habits on LP

Like their name, Neon Trees are a combination of slick pop hooks and sturdy organic rock, both melodic and hard-hitting, their anthems of adolescent angst, longing, love lost and found, delivered with the kind of heart-on-the-sleeve passion that only comes from hard work and commitment.

Their Mercury Records debut, Habits, produced by friend, singer/guitarist Tim Pagnotta, is a refreshing blast of timeless rock energy and spirit that wouldn’t sound out of place at any point from ‘60s garage-rock to 2010 dance rock, with the first single, “Animal,” taking off from a round of weaving, angular guitars into a song equally at home in the arena as on the dance floor, a paean to sexual longing. Take hook-happy new wave, add to it the classic-rock story-telling humanity and leaven with other-worldly charisma, and you begin to understand the palette Neon Trees are working from.

In the opener “Sins of my Youth,” Tyler Glenn reminisces about a childhood of trial, error and eventual self-discovery. “Your Surrender” takes Roy Orbison’s romantic plaint and sets it up against Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, while “Girls and Boys in School” speaks for itself, with a playground chant over a dark yet sing-along synth-pop chorus. Chris Allen has a quirky, edgy Johnny Marrr-meets-The Edge guitar playing style here while drummer Elaine Bradley drums with the intensity of John Bonham adding a heartbeat to the sensuality of the songs.

Neon Trees Habits Track Listing:

1.  Sins of My Youth
2.  Love and Affection
3.  Animal
4.  Your Surrender
5.  1983
6.  Girls and Boys in School
7.  In the Next Room
8.  Our War