When I first saw there was a band named “cootie catcher,” my 7th-grade sense of humor kicked in and I thought this was a joke along the lines of “catching cooties” for kissing Sally behind the barn. While Toronto’s cootie catcher may be tipping a hat to those kinds of cooties, it seems to instead be referencing the origami paper game that is made from a folded sheet of paper and can be opened to a bunch of inner flaps that have special messages.

Everyone loves making those little paper fortune tellers, but the double entendre makes sense because cootie catcher’s third album, now out and fittingly (either way) titled Something We All Got, is also entirely catchy.

The band shows no shortage of ideas and directions over the course of these 14 songs. The three songwriters Sophia Chavez (vocals, synths), Anita Fowl (vocals, bass), and Nolan Jakupovski (vocals, guitar), are rounded out by drummer Joseph Shemoun. Once they mix their talents, it results in a sound that is accurately referred to by some journalists as “laptop twee.”

“Loiter for the love of it” tiptoes in as the opener with a circular guitar pattern that hints at a record that will be for the lovers of Pavement/Beulah/Car Seat Headrest-style so-called slacker indie, which is, incidentally, among my favorite subgenres.

Just as I was expecting the next song to come blasting out of the speakers, in the style of those other bands, cootie catcher prove to be taking their own path. “Lifestyle” crawls back into its shell before third track “Straight drop” brings a little bit of a rush.

But the tunes hew closely to the band’s earlier music. While no longer as lo-fi, since this record was made in a proper studio, the affair remains fairly subdued most of the way. Highlights include the girl-voiced pretty guitars of “Rhymes with rest,” the boy-girl-voiced scratchy synth slashings of “Quarter note rock,” and the dead-eyed but rocking “Stick figure.”

This is a strong album all the way through and feels like a grower that will hang around the area of “most played” in my collection. The songs are clearly expressed and I feel they will truly come alive even more in a concert setting, which is handy because cootie catcher will be touring Canada and the U.S throughout March.

Order Something We All Got by Cootie Catcher HERE