Sunpower sounds like someone loved the Dead Kennedys and tried to go out of their way to imitate them but have since pulled back away from that track and while the guitar tone and vocal style are still there, there’s enough of a distinction that allows you to enjoy Sunpower on their own merits.

Bondage is their fourth LP release and their third studio album, following 2009’s Live split, 2008′s Pain for Profit and 2007’s Say Something. Coming five years into their career as a band, Say Something was full of sharp bursts of snotty songs full of sarcasm and ‘abilly twang. It was fun, and political with lots of callbacks to previous musicians but never in a way that was self-consciously reflexive. Say Something was a fun fast little ditty of an album.

Bondage is not a huge step up from previous, but it is certainly an evolution of their sound. It has the tendency to fall down and sound like Dead Kennedys at time, but not so much that it’s totally distracting.

The songs deal with your standard political hardcore themes. Disliking authority figures, Guantanamo Bay, being broke as fuck, the scene. Complaining about these things is like complaining about action movie tropes. I feel like if you get an album in a certain genre, you should just expect these types of songs, and then become pleasantly surprised when it transcends.

And Sunpower does transcend with at least one song. My favorite song on the album is the final, longest song “When The Spirit’s Gone”, a great marrying of the jingle jangle guitar and driving step drum snap with punk rock intensity, but the best moment is when the tempo drops to half speed and the guitar feeds back on itself opening up the sound in a way that made me go “wow.” It was totally unexpected and is a great way to end this album.

One thing that kind of annoys me about this release is the three formats in which the album has been released. One standard 33 RPM with all ten tracks repeated on both sides (the one I have), a 45 RPM version which splits the ten tracks across both sides and then one which is split across four 7” releases which comes with four additional tracks. I complain only because I can’t seem to find this 7” release and I would like to hear the additional songs.

Bondage isn’t great art, but it is great fun and a great example of how hardcore can still be a lot of fun. I eagerly look forward to Sunpower’s next releases.