Oh hi. I was just sitting around, you know, listening to some great music.

Maybe it’s the weather—thunderstormy, on the cusp of June. Maybe it’s because it’s a Sunday night, or because some fuckwad killed an abortion doctor this morning in the lobby of his own church. Maybe it’s because I just watched a sad movie, or because this is the time of year when we are all going through transitions, even if we don’t know it. But this song hits me right square where it hurts.

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I try not to use the M word anymore when discussing music, but this is good old-fashioned melancholy pop. Halloween, Alaska is a Minneapolis band but they recorded their new album with Tchad Blake at Real World Studios. So I think it’s safe to say they’ve Arrived, if they hadn’t already, and they deserve every bit of it. These guys are geniuses with the vocal melodies and especially bridges—and a knife-twist of a lyric like “Don’t talk to your ex / There, I said it.” And while most bands would milk every last drop out of melodies as brilliant as the ones in “The Ends” (I know I would), they fade it out before you can really get a good grip on it.

I’m focusing on “The Ends” because it sounds a little bit like the 80s, and that’s always going to get my attention. And the Current’s been playing it a lot lately. But I could have picked just about any song from Champagne Downtown and it would match this one for sheer beauty and hooks. And then the bridge sounds like Steely Dan. So there you go.

I feel like lately my music listening habits have been stagnating a little, or that I’ve hit a dry spell interrupted only by halfhearted listens to P4K’s Best New Musics. I’ve been waiting to discover my First True Summer Album. It’s a new month, and it feels pretty much like summer, and I just belatedly acquired Champagne Downtown, and I love it, so it might as well be the one.