3 out of 5

Label: Jealous Butcher Records

Produced by: Joanna Bolme

Science has helped to determine what makes a perfect No. 2 song: you get a good beat and a strum, and Neil Gust’s Smith-adjacent whisper vocals narrating atop the most memorable melody; a chorus kicks in but we’re still a beat and a strum, if a little bit stronger, with the story and singing also ticking up in boldness. And then, as you’re nodding your head, just enjoying how catchy and fun this is – then the rock kicks in, hard, and the No. 2 crew proves they’ve got damn chops to blow out your speakers, calling all the way back to Heatmiser’s punk days and back forward through the best of 90s indie pop rock for a mix of gritty street cred and the most satisfying sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs choruses.

First Love, No. 2’s like 20 years later return, has some of these perfect moments, spaced across its 11 tracks – Model of the Universe, Too Much Is Not Enough – but, like the single that preceded it, it’s moreso stocked with rock-forward tracks, hitting on a very recognizable No. 2 cadence that definitely satisfies after all these years (and throws a wild question mark on to how Gust has kept his singing voice so limber for these decades, pulling off the lilt and shouts with the same passion and zeal as ever), but admittedly misses on an ideal mix of hits to “standards.”

Some of this might be on Jicks-er Joanna Bolme, as I can maybe guess at how the production might encourage the band towards bringing the riffage up front in a kind of faux-Whites Stripes bomp, but I’d still maintain – I mean, given the science I’ve mentioned, which surely I don’t need to cite – that No.2’s bestest works thrive on a more indirect buildup to those riffs, regardless of how dang catchy they are.

Still: if you’re like me, No.2’s two albums are semi-regular spins, and I’m happy as hell to be able to add some more tunes to that mix. I imagine, with time, more of these will become as addictive as others I’d consider classics, they’re just lacking in some of that instant new-favorite-band appeal that hit when I first hit on Critical Mass (also recorded by Bolme, but time and our tastes march on…).