Pitchfork

Considering the Exploding Hearts' tragic end-- not to mention guitarist Terry Six's incredibly fortuitous, Fearless-style survival-- you might expect a dour album of infinite sadness from Six's post-Hearts project. But the Nice Boys have found a better way to eulogize the Hearts' career, by flipping up their leather jacket collars and waxing Guitar Romantic, exploring and expanding upon 1970s power-pop while using the genre as a coping mechanism.

If The Nice Boys is generally a sober, straight-laced album, "Avenue 29" sprouts up as a brief drug binge. It's the only track not kickstarted by a compact riff or fist-pumping drum beat, and Six's lethargic, nasally vocals recall Brian Jonestown Massacre or even Olivia Tremor Control at their most conventionally pop. "Cheryl Anne (Carry On)" adds another wrinkle to the readymade Heartbreakers/T. Rex template, injecting a heavy dose of psychedelic glam into a track already rife with trippy chromatic shifts and ethereal harmonies.

These moments aside, the Boys stick to their guns on the album's finest cuts. Six's pubescent-like awkwardness-- perhaps the band's most prominent characteristic-- drives many of the songs, adding poignancy to the emotional lows and rendering the highs that much easier to rally around. Whether trash-talking in the least intimidating way possible on "Ain't That Beat" or straining to squeak out those high notes on opening war cry "Teenage Nights", the Nice Boys strike uncomfortable rock poses like a hired prom band, crafting a huge arena-ready sound by casting it on a proportionately small canvas. The stakes seem high, even if the subject matter stays on the trials and tribulations of teenagers at night.

Understandably, the power-pop here falls considerably short of At Budokan or even Guitar Romantic levels of geeky bacchanalia. Whereas Hearts anthems like "Modern Kicks" strove to kick ass, the Nice Boys live up to their name, content to lean against the jukebox and smoke their cigarettes. Same leather-studded aura of cool, just minus the proactive streak. While nine times out of 10 anyone in the cafeteria would choose to run with the badass bullies over the conventional dorks, the Nice Boys' nuanced retro-rock charm make it worth leaving the cool table every once in a while.