Every band worth its salt has a member who worked in a record store. In METZ, the fearless noise rock trio who released five full-length albums on Sub Pop between 2012 and 2024, it was singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. Slinging indie rock and hardcore records in his hometown record store while attending university, Edkins became an ardent student of rock ‘n’ roll from the psychedelic 1960s to the DIY 1990s and beyond. Hoopla, the catchy, melodic second LP from Edkins’s solo project Weird Nightmare, mixes and matches these influences in fun and exhilarating combinations, displaying his sophisticated musical mind. Bursting to life with hooks and earworms, Hoopla is that one tape that never gets ejected from the car stereo, but plays on repeat, soundtracking the summer. New and nostalgic at the same time, Hoopla will perk up your ears. Weird Nightmare’s self-produced, and decidedly lo-fi, self-titled debut was recorded at home during the pandemic and released by Sub Pop in 2022. Weird Nightmare displayed Edkins’s indie rock sensibility, with a penchant for undeniable hooks and massive sing-along choruses. On the new studio album Hoopla—co-produced with Spoon’s Jim Eno and recorded at Seth Manchester’s Machines with Magnets—Edkins expands Weird Nightmare’s dimensions even further. New musical textures such as piano, bells, and castanets fuse with Edkins’ straightforward songwriting to give these tunes a shiny luster. It’s like a beloved indie director leveling up to their first studio feature. If Weird Nightmare’s debut was an underground crowd pleaser akin to Richard Linklater’s Slacker, then Hoopla is Edkins’s Dazed and Confused. Resplendent with sunny guitar pop, Hoopla was produced with just the right amount of fuzz and crunch. The immediate, unfussy recording brings you right into the studio with Edkins and his rhythm section: Loel Campbell on drums and bassist Roddy Kuester. This is top-shelf power pop; these sharp jolts of adrenaline could slip into a radio rock block between The Replacements and Elvis Costello & the Attractions. Or fit just as easily alongside Sharp Pins, Ratboys, and Alvvays. At its heart, this album is an optimistic, shining light in our strange time. Through Weird Nightmare, Edkins wants you to know that he is still in love with the world, and he invites the listeners of Hoopla to feel the same. Take this chance to seize a glimmer of widescreen pop magic in our used-up old world. You deserve it.
