Summer days, stifling heat in front of the computer screen…It makes you don’t feel like playing a record. But days like these make easier the work of listening and writing about a record, because you need that your choice has lightness, coolness and immediacy. Records don’t have to change the history, they only have to look for the correct moment to be listened, and, in days of torpor, laziness and heaviness , the power Pop seems to make its way.

So, escaping from the heat, we can’t resist the temptation to remind of the Canadian The Salteens, group from Vancouver who amazed in the 2000 with their debut, Short-Term Memories, which was published by their compatriots Endearing Records. This record resulted to be one of the surprises of the year with their contagious Indie Power Pop (so fashionable in the indie scene). This group played songs as Kelly Nicoll, Crash the Market or Guy Dog (very TFC), and they turned these songs into hits which made the group obtained recognition with some prize from the Canadian record industry. This debut showed the group as a member of the most immediate and the simplest Power Pop which always looks for the easy melody and tries to capture the listener empathy. To sum up, a great record which turned them into a promise of the incipient scene in their country.

But, they took a long time to continue their successful career. The group played a large number of concerts, but, It was not until the middle of 2004 when they published their second album Let Go Of Your Bad Days, thanks to the new label Boompa! Recordings. And It was worth waiting because this second record increase the capacity of the group to find the perfect melody. However, It’s not a Short-Term Memories Vol.2. The new songs show that the last 4 years since their last work were useful to male the group mature, specially with no innocent lyrics and a much more “professional” sound, distant from the amateur period which showed them as a university group interested about the result (melody) but not about the way to reach the final product.

Let Go Of Your Bad Days shows a collection of ten songs which, despite the fact of being directed by the enthusiastic spirit of past years, hold other virtues which keep our attention. The new liking for the detail shows a lot of shades with violins, trumpets and saxes or cellos. The first theme, which entitles the record, show The Salteens with less electric urgency and more perfectionist dose, quite melodies passes with the presence of string and wind sections. The same effect appears in Damn You. You Stood Out From the Crowd reminds of the Salteens in the past years, more Power Pop than never before and with the best wind section, instantaneous hit and guitar distortion. Look Up! Look Out! is pure sweet with keyboards together with a steel guitar and a insurmountable orchestration. Turnpike is a minute of simplicity and peace, the following theme, Summer’s Gone appears with 3 minutes of distortion. In the final part of the record we find Not For Nothing, perhaps my favourite piece in the record which is followed by Thoughts From Sound which remind of the past years again. The final songs, Time You Have Been Waiting together with Home Again, with Megan Bradfield voice, makes us remind of the brilliant Papas Fritas, specially the first theme, which is one of the crucial moments in the record.

It seems that The Salteens are working nowadays to publish their third album. Their records are available at Endearing (Short- Term Memories) and Boompa! Recordings (Let Go Of Your Bad Days).