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Talkhouse

<a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/power-chords" target="_blank" rel="noopener">P</a><a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/power-chords">ower Chords</a>, Mike Krol’s new Merge release, picks up where 2015’s <a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/turkey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turkey</a> left off. It traces Krol’s journey back to punk rock, harnessing both the guitar technique and the musical redemption referenced in its title. He’s wielding the same influences — Misfits, The Strokes, early Weezer, Ramones — but turning up the gravity and the gain. Indeed, Krol has gone somewhere new; yes, he bludgeoned himself with over-analysis and self-loathing, but along the way he stumbled upon a trove of intricate guitar lines and artfully mutating melodies.
Music ruined Krol’s life. And then saved it. In chronicling that process, Krol has made his best record — painful, voyeuristic, and angry, but ultimately transcendent and timeless. It is the sound of Krol giving in to a force greater than himself, as though the chords are playing him rather than the other way around.

Mike Krol

Music

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