French Cassettes – Good For It (February 2022)

French Cassettes music is filled with winding melodies that pop up unexpectedly but grab hold and don't let go... and may leave you asking "who needs hands with hooks like these?" The harmony-driven power-pop quartet's new LP, Rolodex, was conceived beneath a stairwell in the band's adopted hometown of San Francisco, where frontman Scott Huerta spent months staying up until 4 am, obsessing over elaborate demos. The album was self-recorded by lead guitarist Mackenzie Bunch, and the songs that were eventually stitched together are hook-filled and rooted in pop, layered with intricate vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies, inventive percussion, and every shade of clean and fuzzy guitars stacked up like an orchestra. These uncommonly majestic, esoteric pop forms serve as the perfect delivery service for Huerta's playful and verbose lyrics, which are often presented as semi-autobiographical puzzles. "Good For It" was an outtake from these sessions, where frontman Scott Huerta recalls he "Worked on the demo all night, and when I finished it at 5am I messaged my brother that I wrote a new song that I think is good and I'll never forget his response. 'It's kinda early.'"