Pasadena

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Sample Album
ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 11   Total Length: 37:14

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Holy Reunion!

dukerayburn

Holy Shit Ozma are back together. And this album is remarkable. Finding this available for download actually brought tears to my eyes. Do not miss. These fuckers can work.

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Ozma return and they haven't missed a beat

Jeff42

This is the first Ozma album since the power pop quintet reformed in 2006 with a new drummer. Oddly, two songs, No One Needs to Know and Eponine, are re-recorded versions of earlier tracks. This was due to pressure from management, who believed the songs would be good singles. They're both great songs, and the new versions sound tighter than ever, although Eponine's shortened outro is disappointing. On the nine new songs, Ozma branch out their sound considerably from their earlier records, and it pretty much all works. Some of the new stuff is good, like the quirky pop rock of Lunchbreak. Some is great, like the beautiful acoustic ballad I Wonder. Some is so amazing it makes me giddy, like Heartache vs Heartbreak, the first Ozma song to feature shared male/female lead vocals. Other highlights include the incredibly catchy Incarnation Blues and the cathartic-sounding Underneath My Tree. If you like anything Ozma have done in the past, or if you just like great power pop, buy this album.

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They Say All Media Guide

Many fans of southern California alt-rockers Ozma were disappointed by the band’s last album, considering Spending Time on the Borderline a weak-willed attempt to break into the new wave revival. Coming nearly four years and one breakup and re-formation later, Pasadena reverts to the straightforward indie pop of Ozma’s earlier material; it even features a re-recording of one of the previous album’s better songs, “Eponine,” in apparent atonement. These 11 songs are as crisp and bouncy as the best material on Rock and Roll Part Three, with a newfound lyrical maturity and a more wide-screen sound that better incorporates the synthesizer parts that started to overwhelm the rest of the band on Spending Time on the Borderline. (See “Incarnation Blues.”) The album’s true highlight is the simply outstanding “Heartache Vs. Heartbreak,” a dramatic, Electric Light Orchestra-influenced duet between lead singer Daniel Brummel and guest star Rachel Haden that sounds like a great lost New Pornographers single; if she’ll have them, Ozma should consider asking Haden to join the band permanently. Surprisingly considering the indifference towards their last album, Ozma have returned to active duty with perhaps the strongest work of their careers. – Stewart Mason

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