The Minders – Hooray For Tuesday

Label: SpinART Records

I’m a sucker for just about anything that the Elephant 6 bands get involved in. But “Hooray For Tuesday,” is possibly the most uninterrupted, most straightforward pop to come from any of the eight or so bands in the collective. The Minders are the wonderful creation of transplanted Brit Martyn Leaper, and produced by Apples In Stereo impresario Robert Schneider, to give it that clean retro pop sound. The Minders take a slice of all the best parts off the 60-70s-garage pop music and mix them up into a tasty stew. You can hear bits of bands like The Zombies, Turtles, Kinks, Beatles and Beach Boys strewn throughout the short twelve song minor masterpiece.

Beginning with the unshakably catchy title track, “Hooray For Tuesday” The Minders keep their songs short and sweet- no extended jams, or weird instrumentation, just authentic sounding pop. Like a kinder gentler version of the Lily’s, Leaper and company log in twelve tightly knit pop songs into just under a half-hour. On songs like “Comfortably Tucked Up Inside” and “More and More” you catch this sweet sounding power pop that, at moments, sounds so authentically retro that you’d almost think it was a refurbished Kinks demo from 73′.

I can’t really say that The Minders ever really stand a chance of becoming a household name or that they might even hear their songs on the radio, but in the grand scheme of things “Hooray For Tuesday” will remain a great Beatlesque tribute to a great period in the history of music.