veglam.com (UK) JUNE 2020 When I first saw the name of the band, I thought they were playing speed action rock and I couldn’t be more wrong… Opening song “This Ain’t a Radio Sound” immediately brings TOM PETTY and CHEAP TRICK to mind. “The Day I Call You Mine” and “Your Brown Eyes Look So Blue” sound more like modern American powerpop which is interesting since the band is located in London. The songs are quite catchy, “Telephone Lies” will stay in your head for the rest of the day, “Day Dreaming” and “Had Enough This Time” are like a mix of PAUL COLLINS BEAT and early KISS and “Kisses Are History” is a sugar sweet pop ballad somewhere between 70s glam and early American new wave (this influence can also be heard in “Good Girls Don’t Break Heart.”) “This Is About A Girl Who Loves The Sun” or “Empty Pages” almost sound like 80s radio friendly rock you could hear while driving and turning the radio on somewhere in California. The band seems to have worked hard on melodies and vocal harmonies when you listen to songs like “Number Seven” and “In A World Without Love It’s Hard To Stay Young” but they manage to keep some fresh RAMONES energy. You might not hear “Radio Sounds” on the radio, but this is a great summer album for every powerpop fan around! (LC)

rpmonline.co.uk (UK) JUNE 2020 Is this Power Pop? A question that is often all caps shouted across screens by keyboard warriors defending their record collection decisions. Power Pop. A holy grail whose contents are loudly proclaimed obvious (depending who ya ask) and essential. Apparently sacred (yet neverendingly argued) since the storied days of Peter Case losing his Nerves to then lace up his Plimsouls. Somehow important yet almost impossible to achieve… one wrong move, a drink too far, a chord eschewing a jangle and you’re “just rock n roll”. Or so it seems… The Speedways. The members languidly lean on the bars of darkened London pubs or float like spectres in corners of Some Weird Sin and Garageland gigs. Striped shirts and leather jackets. Dirty street-tamed Chucks and scuffed Thunders boots carry them from one late night heartache to another. They are true believers who take their turn on stage with hearts outshining the Cheap Trick badges. Heart. How do you capture it? How do you? This album is a stellar example of doing just that. It is the emotion, the essence of love (lost and yearned for) that makes special songs, damn the torpedoes and neat classifications. This is their second full-length album and the growth since ‘Just Another Regular Summer’ is apparent right off the opening track. ‘This Ain’t A Radio Sound’ opens with a playful ‘80’s Cars ‘Heartbeat City’ keyboard that is somehow right at home alongside the dirty street jangle of Mauro Venegas’ guitars. Then Matthew Julian saunters in, his vocals accomplishing a feat in common with that of my favourite singers. It is instantly recognisable. Equal parts world-weary and up to the fight. Like how Phil Lynott would somehow whisper your thoughts back to you. At once like a friend and someone you wish you had the nerve to approach. A very rare and special dichotomy that gains trust from the listener. People will say you’re born with that. I can see here that you can earn it. ‘The Day I Call You Mine’ shakes off the skinny tie and gets tough. And sweet. The rhythm section of Kris Hood and Adrian Alfonso are like a modern day Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke of The Smiths. Taking the gorgeous songcraft and walking it home like schoolyard best friend bodyguards. In fact, every melody and arpeggiated chord on this long-player is kept safe in their scrappy hands. “Daydreaming’ opens with razor-sharp back alley chords and a streetwise snarl that has me all of a sudden thinking, “Is this ROCK N ROLL???” Speaking of that… ‘Your Brown Eyes Look So Blue’ comes dangerously close to sounding like a forgotten outtake from the soundtrack to “Grease”. High School dancing itself right to the edge of the parking lot of kitsch to puke, but teetering there and miraculously feeling much better, thank you! It was a close one boys, but then again, some imminent peril makes albums and nights out exciting. The track order on this album has a great arch to it. The way it builds to a cinematic centrepiece starting from the dreamy fade into focus intro of ‘This Is About A Girl Who Loves The Sun’. It builds wonderfully into widescreen guitar pop. The song takes you off the dusty and noisy summer city streets and into the cinema to catch your breath and “to stop taking it out on yourself” as Matthew reminds you in the lyrics. The exuberance of ‘Number Seven’ kicks the cinema doors wide open and the sunlight comes streaming through. We’re in The Speedways’ neighbourhood now, and there’s a place they know that’s perfect for an afternoon drink. Matthew puts his arm around you on the walk and lets ya know that you’ll get by… it doesn’t matter who believes you. Another standout track is the band next door sound of ‘Empty Pages’. Effortlessly cool and just the right riff for just the right lyrics (“On Halloween I couldn’t hide”… who hasn’t felt that way? Vulnerable and surrounded by Pound Shop devils and clowns) The song is the sound of hanging out. Pure and simple. The whole set does an excellent job of establishing a recognisable sound while crossing gang lines into territories that may feel like defection. The early Petty and almost ‘50s stomp intro of ‘Had Enough This Time’ giving way to a sun shower of cascading guitar shimmer and a riff that steps right off a beach to join in? Really? It works. Really well. The album closer, the rather magnificently titled ‘In A World Without Love It’s Hard To Stay Young’, is a perfect bookend. A pocket symphony of guitars that shine like the afternoon sun reflected off a Camaro’s dashboard. Its harmonies sonically answer Julian’s proclamation, “I thought I was the only one to feel this way, until…” with the easy embrace of a close pal. No. You’re not the only one who does, Matthew. You just have a timeless way of expressing it. Your band is right there with you bringing these songs into brilliant focus as well. Pretty happy that a band like this exists, making albums to this calibre. It sounds awfully good with a cold one or a double too! OH! Power Pop? I ain’t getting’ into that! Whaddya think, I’m crazy?

fasterandlouderblog.blogspot.com (USA) June 2020 Well here we go: the album I entered 2020 looking forward to the most is finally here! Radio Sounds is the second LP by London-based foursome The Speedways - and its first as a proper band. Based on the two singles released in advance of Radio Sounds, my expectations for this album were sky-high. But somehow this record has actually surpassed what I was hoping for. Singer/guitarist Matt Julian has always excelled at crafting three-minute pop songs in the classic tradition. But having found the perfect band-mates in guitarist Mauro Venegas, bassist Adrian Alfonso, and drummer Kris Hood, he's made absolute magic on this 12-track full-band debut. Radio Sounds is spiritually aligned with 2018's spectacular Just Another Regular Summer. But this album is bigger, better, and even more emotionally wrenching than its predecessor. The playing and production are immaculate, and the songs are truly magnificent. Julian is really in his element here, turning out song after song about heartbreak, longing, and the sadness of love lost. He has quite a flair for combining the melodic punch of new wave power pop with the drama and romance of '60s girl groups and teen idols. Radio Sounds, as the title suggests, draws inspiration from the timeless pop hits of yore. The influence shows not just in the melodies, harmonies, and choruses but also in Julian's lyrics. Of course he can write a catchy song that will have you humming along and hopping merrily around the house. But as enjoyable as these tunes are on the surface, they're also songs that you can really feel. I consider Julian a true soul singer. When he sings of heartache, despair, and bitter disappointments in love and life, every word rings authentic. He's lived his music. And that is the secret formula for great pop - to create joy by making others less alone in their misery. From start to finish, Radio Sounds is packed with remarkable songs. If lead single "Kisses Are History" doesn't move you to tears, you probably weren't listening very closely. "The Day I Call You Mine" is perhaps my favorite Speedways song to date. The protagonist in this tale is willingly throwing himself into heartbreak's line of fire, and I relate to that on a personal level. Even as I listen to this song and think "This guy's in for it!", I know I would be in the same boat. If you believe in love, you sometimes have to take your punches. If you stop believing in love, that's a far bleaker existence in my book. "Empty Pages", another choice cut, manages to be devastating and hopeful all at once. That chorus will pull at your heartstrings all day long! "Good Girls Don't Break Hearts" and "Telephone Lies" are vintage Speedways numbers - bitter pills that go down easy. If 1980 had never ended, these would indeed be radio sounds. "Your Brown Eyes Look So Blue" is snappy R & B that ought to have you dancing into the night. And just as Julian did on Just A Regular Summer, he places the album's two most dramatic, epic songs at the end of each side. "This Is About A Girl Who Loves The Sun", which eerily employs Marilyn Monroe's "I'm generally miserable" quote as a backdrop, will absolutely tear your heart out. Album closer "In A World Without Love It's Hard To Stay Young" sounds like it should be playing over the closing credits to a powerful cinematic love story. That title is truly profound, and the song seems the perfect culmination to an album that ultimately asserts that the heartbreak we endure in life is absolutely worth it. I've played this song dozens of times over the last few weeks, and it never ceases to take my breath away.The Speedways worked meticulously to make Radio Sounds the strongest album it could be, and they have succeeded spectacularly. As great as Julian was on his own, he's even better in tandem with the like-minded and talented Venegas, Alfonso, and Hood. This album rings with the echoes of everyone from Buddy Holly to Phil Spector to Elvis Costello to the Exploding Hearts. It's a classic style pop record that manages to sound fully contemporary in 2020. Radio Sounds isn't just the best power pop album of the year. It's the best power pop album in a whole lot of years! It's available now from Snap! Records/Hurrah Musica, Beluga Records, & Alien Snatch Records! (Josh Rutlegde)

hearasingle.blogspot.com (UK) JUNE 2020 I reviewed The Speedways' debut album in July 2018 and loved it. At that point, it appeared that the album was a one off Side Project for Matt Julian and I hoped there would be more. Since then, the excellent Rum Bar Records got hold of the album and released an Expanded Edition last year and the album took on a life of its own to establish itself as one of the great Power Pop albums of recent years and rightly so. So I'm delighted to report that the follow up is released this Friday and you won't be disappointed. Radio Sounds is everything that is great about the debut album, but seems to have taken on an even more melodic feel. If anything this feels a bit more laid back at times. It is also pleasing that the band have become an established quartet now and it shows in the playing and arrangements. Where as song such as Number Seven is everything that you would expect from a Speedways song, Your Brown Eyes Seem So Blue could be Racey. Empty Pages is a jangle fest, very early 80s US Pop, yet Had Enough This Time is very UK New Wave. In A World Without Love It's Hard To Stay Young is a Jingle Jangle riff-a-thon. The Day I Call You Mine is great pop. All the prerequisites of Power Pop are here. Big Choruses, riffs that hook, great Middle Eights etc. Matt Julian has captured the genre perfectly and at a time when Power Pop seems to have lost so much direction, Radio Sounds should be used as an example of what the template is.

RESERVOIR DROOGS (UK) JUNE 2020 When you add classic to a description you immediately set a standard. Classic rock, classic rap. There you go. You have a certain sound in your head don't you? So when I say the Radio Sounds from The Speedways is classic power pop then will have a good idea of what to expect. Every song sounds like a hit. Every single one. Here's another trite bit of hyperbolic praise. All killer no filler. Like the term classic all killer no filler is rolled out often enough to describe releases that it loses any power it has through repitition, but once you hear this album you will give me a pass on dusting it off because it's a stone cold fact in this instance. Within the framework of the genre this is just so ridiculously good that it could very easily sit shoulder to shoulder with all the big hitters. It could be the end product from a supergroup featuring Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, assorted Ramones, Jellyfish, a Beach Boy or two, The Jags and............ well keep going because everyone is there. In so many ways it has captured the essence of power pop. No mean feat. If you even have a passing interest in this style of music then it is a must have release. The peers of The Speedways are going to look to this album as the quality bar they will have to reach for. A new standard has been set, and it's outrageously high.