No Album Left Behind: Sharp Pins, Radio DDR

When people talk or write about Chicago’s fast-rising tide of vaunted young indie rock bands, Sharp Pins tends to get a cursory mention, if they get mentioned at all.

That’s understandable, because the other bands in the scene are terrific: ‘90s-inspired post-punk trio Horsegirl made one of the best albums of 2022. The ambitious, classically inspired rock duo Friko did the same this year. And lean, noisy punk trio Lifeguard—whose bassist, Asher Case, is the son of Brian Case from FACS and Disappears—have put out a handful of great EPs, are signed to Matador Records and seem destined to land a full-length on year-end lists soon.

Sharp Pins, on the other hand, are easy to overlook. The band’s shimmering pop rock is resolutely mid-fi and, so far, self-released, and its primary creative force is Kai Slater, a DIY enthusiast who also plays guitar in Lifeguard. Add it all up and—as the kids say—it’s giving “side project.”

Here’s the problem with that: Sharp Pins’ second full-length, Radio DDR, is an eye-opening slab of urgent, fully formed brilliance. It’s an 11-track collection of jangling power-pop songs that are gently bracing and generously melodic. It’ll scratch your deep-seated itch for the sound of classic Guided By Voices in a very satisfying way. And it’s one of the most overlooked excellent albums of the year—or at least it was until it slid into the top 25 of Paste’s 100 Best Albums of 2024.

One thing Radio DDR is not is an out-of-nowhere surprise. The band’s 2023 debut, Turtle Rock, offered up 13 examples of Slater’s talent for writing and recording pop songs in the tradition of Bob Pollard, Elliott Smith, the Beatles and beyond. While the fi was indeed lo, the band’s endless supply of hummable melodies and chiming guitars shined through.

On Radio DDR, they’re blinding. Here, the guitars feel warmer and as wide as the horizon. The bouncing basslines don’t get buried in the background. The drums no longer sound like they were recorded inside a Rubbermaid container. And the whole mix feels like it has been pulled forward to the front of the stage in your auditory mind. Where Turtle Rock is a record you listen to, Radio DDR is one you can live inside, if you want—an impressive feat for a home recording.

To his credit, Slater doesn’t shy away from Guided By Voices comparisons, choosing to open the album with “Every Time I Hear,” an exhilarating jangle-pop song that would fit comfortably on the lo-fi legends’ 1995 classic Alien Lanes. Later, “When You Know” fuses two GBV staples—an indelible vocal melody and the perfect amount of fuzz—and “Is It Better” spends its first 10 seconds or so sounding like it might be a droning cover of “Game Of Pricks.” It’s not! And it would be heresy to suggest it’s a better song than “Game Of Pricks.” But goddamn is it great.

Elsewhere, Sharp Pins shapeshift repeatedly, all the while retaining the qualities that make them special. The strummy, feather-light “Lorelei” sounds like an Elephant 6 band playing at 1.5x speed. “If I Was Ever Lonely” and “Circle All The Dots” crank the guitar jangle up to 11 and ever-so-slightly dip their toes into ‘60s soul and ‘70s country, respectively. And on songs like “Sycophant” and “Chasing Stars,” Slater turns down the tempo and the volume and proves he’s capable of beautiful ballads, too. The latter, in particular, sports a stop-you-in-your-tracks melody.

Are there weak spots on Radio DDR? Not really, but even if there are, who cares? Slater released it straight to Bandcamp in May with minimal promotion, and all the money he makes from it goes directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. So here’s the tl;dr version of this review: Buy it and support a good cause, then press “play” and let Sharp Pins take over your life just as they have mine. The rest of the world will catch on soon enough.

Ben Salmon is a committed night owl with an undying devotion to discovering new music. He lives in the great state of Oregon, where he hosts a killer radio show and obsesses about Kentucky basketball from afar. Ben has been writing about music for more than two decades, sometimes for websites you’ve heard of but more often for alt-weekly papers in cities across the country. Follow him on Twitter at @bcsalmon.