Pardoner - Target Practice [LP]

Ripping guitars, pummeling drums, and catchy-yet thoughtful lyrics. These are the tools Pardoner have used for over a decade to chisel their ""slacker"" tunes. On their 5th LP, Target Practice, they continue to refine their approach in search of a Heavenly Pop Hit â„¢. Sensing a cultural slide back into math-rock and prog, this is their most straight ahead record yet. Absent are the surprise blast beats and scene changes that were hallmarks of Came Down Different (2021) and Peace Loving People (2023). 10 concise songs, tinged with playful meanness and satire, remain. It's hard not to be a black-pilled doomer amidst the antagonistic forces in the world. The band's attacks on faux-intellectual high art and peers in the scene, however, are not without self-critique. ""Driving across the country //Preaching bulls*t gospel"" is half-sung amidst jangly guitar on the lead single ""Twisted."" Target Practice is a modern, fizzier take on 80s/90s college rock. Flying Nun, Smudge, and the noisier side of Yo La Tengo are all spiritually present. Digging deeper, the single, ""Don't Slouch,"" is an attempted, xanax-ified Blessed Virgins song. Before their heart-on-sleeve album closer, ""Changing Mags"" the band covers Nuggets adjacent The Barracudas, whose lyrics perfectly encapsulate Target Practice, ""I'm not imagining this, I see the signs. We're living in violent times.""