“Anywhere you go, people wanna know, how to have a real time,” Blue Broderick sings to open her new Diners’ album, Domino, the album is now available via Bar/None Records. It is authentic rock ’n’ roll, with the emphasis on rock ’n’ roll on this record. Producer Mo Troper and Broderick decided that they really wanted to push Diner’s music into the fuzzed out territory, and their music is like if The Beach Boys were making an indie, lo-fi record in the 2020s. A little throwback, a little future looking.

Or like the successful single, “The Power,” (and other tracks on the record,) something like Teenage Fanclub’s tried-and-true indie pop. “It ain’t too late to understand, too late to try / Too late to recognize the power that’s inside.” Whether it’s the song, “Someday I’ll Go Surfing,” which is both a tribute to surf rock and the sport it’s named after, or the opener, “Working On My Dreams,” most of the songs deal with trying to live your best life, and embrace the possibility intrinsic in life, art, and relationship.

And the album is overwhelmingly charming, witty, and even optimistic. “Kind affirmations and carrots still dangling / New inspirations appear when it’s time for me to believe.” It is the kind of intelligent happiness you would expect from a creative soul like Broderick’s. That’s how I would describe this record: intelligently happy.

“I wonder if I’m ever gonna get it right?” Broderick asks in the album closer, “Wisdom.” A sign that even when things are going your way, and you’ve made a banger of an album, like Domino, doubt is still a big part of human existence. But like dominos, Diners knock down one indie hit after another, and it’s a thrill watching (or listening) to them all go down in a flurry of excitement. Like a fun game, this album provides entertainment and food for thought in a clever and exciting package.

Order Domino by Diners HERE