Everyone I've sent Crowd Rock by Pen Pal for the past two weeks has had a lukewarm reaction to it— unfortunately for them they are all wrong.
Maybe these people just haven't listened to enough of the OC Soundtrack, or been to enough ideasforconversations concerts to pick up on the intricacies at play here — but they are severely missing out on the most unique record of the year. Imagine listening to prime Phoenix (1901 is the certified song of the summer btw) with a sick ass electronic breakdown from an ear track in the middle (1:20 on "How The Head Works").
I think what I've deciphered is that they're basing their opinion off of the first track, which is a massive outlier on the record, lacking both of the two qualities mentioned above. So if you go into this album DO NOT PRESS PLAY ON THE FIRST TRACK — just skip to track 2, which is one of the best songs of 2026 complete with all the qualities mentioned above as well as some 07-era-pinback yelps — the rest of the album basically follows this kind of equation and goes absurdly hard.
DO NOT PRESS PLAY ON THE FIRST TRACK — just skip to track 2, which is one of the best songs of 2026
Also would love to highlight the moments where they go full midi-orchestra-musescore-mode on tracks 5 & 6. So awesome and completely unique. Above all else I guess I would just say nobody is trying anything like this — well, probably some people, but they are not doing in nearly as an interesting way as Pen Pal is.
Must Listens: Age Of Umpires, How The Head Works, Slight Exaggeration For Comic Effect, They Say It's The Light, Sidelife, Sorry By Design, Cadillac
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