Secret Songs

Secret Songs is Nobunny's fourth album and it provides all the sweaty, hooky rock & roll fans have come to expect from the shirtless, pantless rocker. The songs were recorded all over the country in different studios and bedrooms, but all have the lo-fi punch of previous efforts, maybe even a bit more in spots. Driven by tightly wound drums and guitars and powered by Nobunny's scruffy vocals, the songs bounce and jump like classic jukebox hits. From straightforward punky rockers like "My Blank Space" and "Bye Bye Roxie" to bubblegum sticky tunes like "True Vulture" and the Farfisa-led "The Birthday Girl," Nobunny lets loose with an impressive barrage of songs that are singalong, dance-around, feel-good jams. Whether they are in glorious mid-fi or in scratchy lo-fi, as scuzzy as his mask ("Rotten Sweet Tooth"), sorta unsavory in a misogynistic way ("Little Bo Bitch"), or as naggingly catchy as the theme song to a lost '70s cartoon ("My Blank Space"), just about every song here is perfectly crafted, loose-as-a-goose rock & roll that's played and sung the way it was meant to be played and sung. It's pretty much Nobunny's M.O., and this record isn't much different in sound and feel than his others. (The only real deviation from the formula is the 30-second-long blast of hardcore punk ("Buried in a Bong") that pops up near the end of the record like a boisterous wrong number.) That being said, Secret Songs may be his best record, thanks to how consistently good the songs are. His other albums have all had highlights and picks top click, but Secret Songs is all highlights and all picks to click. Drop any one of them into a mix and it'll be the song that catches the listener's attention right away. Nobunny's visual schtick might be getting as old as the mask he sports on the album's cover, but his music is as fresh and fun as ever.