4 out of 5

Label: Cass Records

Produced by: Steve Damstra (mixed by)

This really walks a line that threatens to teeter into a pit of obnoxiousness with every next track, but Whirlwind Heat hang on by keeping things rooted in the catchy riffs that have driven both of their previous releases, and taming down some of the forced abandon of their debut and the equally forced sing-song nonsense of their followup – Scoop Du Jour strikes that balance, countering the slacker smirk of their lyrics and ‘tude with ridiculously quality tunes and thick production.

The A-side gets out most of their lyrical indulgences: whether it’s the half-serious hater-baiting of the opener or the masturbatory fantasies of Library Card or the pantsless adventures of No Plans Tonight, it’s a cycle of “good ol’ days” predictable rhyming that never quite crosses the line into dumb smart (i.e. it’s mostly dumb). However: damningly good riffs and a return to the heavier, fuzzier sound of Do Rabbits Wonder? propels this stuff forward, without abandoning the thick pop backing of Types of Wood and some of its experimental bleep-blop sound flourishes.

And then the B-side even manages to mostly discard the juvenilia, kicking off with one of the group’s surely best and most solid songs: Scoop. Scoop ain’t flashy, it’s just a good rock song, and taps into Remember When? nostalgia in a more meaningful (though still light-hearted) way. This is backed up by the equally head-bobbing and hard-edged Scram, and then another group best on closer Out of My Mind, which might as well be a 00s-era radio single, crafted as an unforgettably sharp Weezer-esque simple but effective batch of hooks and singalong lyrics.

The B-side draws into sharper focus what the more basic stuff WWH has put out allows me to overlook: these people are talented musicians, sometimes just putting their skills to work focused on being crass or jokey, versus writing more endurable works. Scoop Du Jour thus isn’t “of the day” – it’s the most timeless version of Whirlwind’s pop rock stylings to date.