Review: Randells – “Endless Vacation”

Self-released, January 17, 2020

Randells make the perfect ep to soundtrack your summer.

I don’t know much of anything about the Randells and have never heard them prior to this record, but they’re dripping with some surf-vibed pop punk nostalgia that sounds so good.  You wanna smile and sing dumb stuff at the top of your lungs?  This record might do the trick.

Endless Vacation, the newest 3-song ep from Randells, has lots of sticky goodness to it.  The title track (and opener) is a musical portrayal of a summer break day hopped up on Fun Dip and soda.  Sure, the guitars buzz, the drums bash and the cymbals crash.  But it’s the song that’s fantastic.  The thrust and drive of the song is all energy.  The lyrics are pure escapism, “let’s make this summer last forever” – kind of stuff.  The vocal melodies and phrasings are pure sugar.  And the multi-part harmonies throughout turn out a ‘60’s beach band vibe.  The whole song just gets me thinking back to being a teenager, riding my bike at dusk on one of those long summer days that seemed to drag on forever in the best possible ways.  Or, maybe it just reminds me of a punked up “Holiday Road” by Lindsey Buckingham (again, a summer vacation vibe for me as my first exposure to that song was on National Lampoon’s Vacation).  Either way, it’s a terrific start, and probably my favorite on the record.

“Fun In The Sun” opens with some absurd synths and a bass-driven verse before diving into another great chorus hook and some more wonderful vocal harmonies.  Synths keep popping up here and there, but never to a distracting garbage level.  And it’s another excellent singalong.  The third and final song, “Bubble Gum Girl pt. 2”, buzzes and pops through some great “ba-ba-ba-ba” vocals to open before the lead singer comes in with preposterous lines like “baby if you were bubblegum, you’d never run out of flavor, and I would keep you in my mouth, and chew you forever”.  It’s simple dumb, it’s singable, and it feels like such a great time.  The backing vocals really stand out on this one, and again, it’s so good.

Then, after seven minutes or so, it all ends.  Maybe that’s for the best, because it just leaves me wanting to listen again.  There’s not a bum song on here.  Yea, it’s simple, it’s derivative, and pretty dumb.  But that’s the point.  Sometimes it’s ok to have music that just makes you forget the garbage in life and instead gets you singing along to nonsense lines and tapping your finger along with the drums.  You know, stuff that just makes you smile.  Endless Vacation may have come out this past winter, but it feels perfect for the start of summer.  Check this out.

Why you might like it:

• Surfy Ramones stuff to sing along with
• Pure escapism; the cover seems like a decent representation of what you’ll hear

Why you might not:

• If dumb lyrics and poppiness drives you nuts, maybe look elsewhere