Tyson Ritter and company put the gas to the floor on the first track and don’t really let up until the end. The guitars roar, the vocal melodies soar, the drums pound, the bass thrums and various keyboards twinkle. Everything is done for high drama, and it’s great.

Tiny Animals’ “Our Own Time” is exactly like that. If you like huge, so-pop-it-hurts music, you’ll like this. If you love that genre, you’ll love the album. If you don’t like it, there’s nothing here to convince you that this genre is a good idea. Don’t be fooled by the wiry electro pop of lead single, “Wait For Me”; this is a guitar record through and through. Tiny Animals’ melodic sense is a bit more tempered than AAR’s, but this is still easily filed next to their work.

Don’t believe me that this is as pop as it gets? This album has a song called “Nah Nah Nah.” I rest my case. —Stephen Carradini

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