One Track Mind

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Power-pop must surely fall into the same category as comedy, in that the easier it looks to do the harder it actually is to pull off. Take “Walking Shoes,” a track from the San Francisco combo Halsted. It’s a breezy little number that calls to mind The Gin Blossoms or the poppier side of late-period Replacements, a fizzy pop tune swathed in an aura of bittersweet melanholy. Something so effortless to enjoy must be equally effortless to create, right? Much easier than, say, math-rock, with its odd time changes and intellectual conceits.

The reality is most likely the exact opposite. More “cerebral” styles of music can hide all manner of songwriting deficiencies with trickery and attitude, but a seemingly simple pop song doesn’t have such cover. It lives and dies on the strength of its hook and performance, and if any single element doesn’t work, neither does the whole.

Fortunately for Halsted, all the elements work on “Walking Shoes,” the first single from the band’s recently released debut LP, Life Underwater. The chorus is built around a soaring pop hook, the lyrics find a nice metaphor for looking back on a failed past relationship, and vocalist Ryan Auffenberg delivers a memorable performance–reminiscent of the aforementioned Gin Blossoms’ Robin Wilson–with just the right amount of wistful regret. It’s the kind of thing that used to sound great coming out of a car radio and, in a kinder world, would once again. It’s completely free of creative production techniques or artistic special effects but that’s fine: like the best power pop, it doesn’t need any of them.