Sometimes, I think back to the early 2000s. Not 100 percent sure why, though; there’s not a whole lot I actually remember from back then. My friends and I played Nintendo 64. We watched the new Star Wars. Al Gore lost an election, people I never hung out with raved about The Strokes, and everyone defined punk by Warped Tours and blink-182.
Almost 15 years later, pop punks Potty Mouth’s “Cherry Picking” seems to remember the time period a little more clearly. Heirs to the snarled alt rockers of the 1990s, Potty Mouth streamlined their sound into something more like the deliberate pop of the century’s end. Hooks are defined by their melodic ring, the guitars are more restrained and the rhythm section plays a steady, kinetic hand.
But Potty Mouth is a little less restrained than the power pop of the early aughts. Singer Abby Weems weaves a radio-gargled melody through the verses, while the polished choruses shed their muster in the laughing gas of “Cherry Picking.” While that millennial pop structure might give it its bones, it’s those rough edges that give “Cherry Picking” its personality and make an unabashed power pop song — a hard sell in 2015 — entirely convincing.