Recorded pre-Covid, the debut album from Aunt Kelly sounds much older than 2019. Driven by piano and largely effectless guitar, these songs have a clean, muscular pop sound that sounds decades old.

Aunt Kelly Remember (self-released)

I'm thinking that's the point. Kelly Hannemann has the full, expressive voice that fully complements the music, and the trio (Dan Gianaris on bass and Sarah Weddle on drums fill out the roster) plays as if it has known each other forever. Maybe they have. Hannemann and Weddle are a couple and both have shared a domicile with Gianaris in the past.

So there's this lovely intimacy weaving through the crunchy power pop as well. I wouldn't quite call this classic rock (it's hardly bombastic), but it eschews the punk pop of Elvis Costello and a lot of the 80s indie rock bands. Rather, these are fairly straightforward pop/rock songs with simple harmonies, guitar solos where there should be guitar solos and pretty much everything else in its proper place.

But oh, these songs have an ache that will not go away. Hannemann isn't excessively dramatic, but she'll sell out to make a song everything it should be. The cap is set at just the right angle to be jaunty. Beguiling.

Jon Worley