Soon Away

In his young career, Yoodoo Park—aka GRMLN—has already undergone quite the artistic metamorphosis, having gone from mostly ambient guitar ballads on his debut EP, 2012’s Explore, to pop-punk on his first full-length, 2013’s Empire. Now, with Soon Away, Park and his band jump headlong into a combination of relentless garage rock, alternative and grunge. From the electric, anthemic opener “Jaded” to its pulse-pounding kissing cousin of a title track at the end of the album, Soon Away grabs hold of you and dares you not to grab hold of your favorite air instrument and join the fun. Fuzzy guitars and machine-gun-style drumming drive tracks like “Avoider” and “White Lung/Black Lung,” and even on more mid-tempo numbers like “Faux” or “Numb,” you have to remind yourself to blink before the next wall of sound hits you like a tsunami. Park wisely and deftly juxtaposes his lively, upbeat sensibilities with the album’s introspective content, and creates one of those experiences where your own little dance party comes to a stop once you realize some pretty heady stuff is being addressed in these songs reportedly inspired by Krishna teachings. It’s one hell of a thought-provoking rock ’n’ roll experience.