Personality Cult “New Arrows” 2020. Dirtnap Records. Punky power pop: fast, sharp, tight tight tight. New Arrows is Personality Cult’s second LP, though from what I’ve read the first record by a true “band.” The first record (s/t, 2018) was essentially a Ben Carr (Natural Causes, Last Year’s Men, Paint Fumes) solo project; New Arrows has him joined by Colin Sneed on the staccato’d drums, Johnny Valiant on the propulsive bass and Stephen Svancina on driving guitar. Carr handles vocals, guitar, “synth, etc.” (from the liner notes). My top tracks are the super-catchy opener “Nothing to Do With It,” the extra staccato’d rat-a-tat-tat’d “Pressure Point,” the excellent “Sharp Edges” which has a very cool and complex and bass-guitar interplay in a really really short song and “Telephone” which has a lot of fun taking guitar and vocals and warping them into a ra-ra-ring-ring of a telephone.

I’m pretty sure we caught Personality Cult play at Dirtnap Fest this past June (it’s getting hazy and we’ve seen A LOT of bands since then). They’re on the lineup flyer but I know that there were a couple of last minute substitutions and schedule-swaps and I wasn’t taking copious notes or photos those two days in Madison. But afterwards I made it a point to purchase records from all of the bands we saw (that I didn’t already have records from) — it helped that there was a sale that week on Dirtnap stock.