Kevin Bronson on September 14th, 2010

0

The new album by Los Angeles quartet the 88 – the band’s fifth – is titled, simply “The 88.” No gimmicks, nothing fancy, and entirely appropriate for four guys who the past eight years have been clawing their way toward the power-pop pantheon with timeless songwriting, deliriously catchy melodies and crackling arrangements.

“As you get older, you realize you just have to be who you are,” frontman Keith Slettedahl says. “We’ve never felt the need to more like this, more like that, or sound like what’s trendy right now.”

“The 88” is out today on iTunes and Sept. 28 physically via Rocket Science – and for the occasion the band is premiering a new video for “They Ought to See You Now.” It was made by Eric Cwiertny using footage from the band’s U.K. tour as support (and the backing band) for the Kinks’ Ray Davies.

The album was recorded around those tour dates, with Slettedahl and bandmates Adam Merrin, Anthony Zimmitti and Todd O’Keefe reconvening after some time off “just to get together and play, with no agenda,” Slettedahl says. “We didn’t even go in to make a record; it just happened. … We kept things as raw as we ever have – it felt this time like we had to do it that way.”

||| Live: The 88 plays Oct. 12 at the Troubadour.

||| Download (via AOL): “Center of the Sun,” and, after the jump, trade your e-mail address for a download of “They Ought to See You Now”