Daddy

Sub Pop's forgotten girl group the Teen Angels tore a page from the Nirvana songbook, but on Daddy, the band's one full-length, it turned out to be too little too late. The songwriting is pretty accomplished, though 1996 was a little after-the-fact for the grunge sound within — by the time this record was released, Brit pop had already bloomed, hardcore and grindcore were pushing the limits of noise, indie rock was having its heyday and post rock was finding its stride. Whether on "Explode" or "Teen Dream", the Teen Angels have a knack for thrashy hooks and start/stop dynamics, but they lack the gifted pop genius of a Black Francis or a Kurt Cobain. And the singing, for the most part, sounds like Kurt trashing his vocal chords — and without the Nirvana frontman's emotional range, it's a little too homogenous to carry this album beyond it's original time and place.