If 2017's Leos Consume was a mission statement of schizophrenic genre-hopping, Onesie's second album, Umpteenth, finds songwriter, singer, and guitarist Ben Haberland, bassist Zack Fanelli, and drummer Lee Madaus playing up their dual strengths; the sugar rush of Big Star/Shoes/Buzzcocks-inspired power pop, tempered with the blasting guitars and tender/non sequitur lyrics of '90s indie.

Recording began in early 2018 at Noisy Little Critter, the enormous barn-cum studio in quiet Downingtown, Pennsylvania run by engineer Mike Bardzik (Jade Tree, Epitaph, Side One Dummy). Haberland and Bardzik go back a decade or two, when their punk bands spent weeks together on the DIY touring circuit and recording in an analog basement studio. Tasked with capturing a dryer, more intimate recording, Bardzik proved to be the perfect foil to Onesie's ADD arrangements. Three days and fourteen songs later, the band retreated back to Brooklyn where Haberland overdubbed vocals, keys, more guitars, and other assorted noises. Following a Memorial weekend trip back to NLC to mix, the eleven song record was mastered by the wizardly Carl Saff in Chicago (Young Widows, Big Business, Body/Head, Russian Circles).

Opener "Ten Times Tinnitus" finds Haberland opting for ringing in his ears over the deafening silence of putting one's rock n roll dreams into storage. Over a languid groove, he promises to "nuke the road ahead and burn the bridges behind" while a tsunami of guitars rises up to either drown or carry him to salvation. "Customers" thunders in as an ear-wormed reaction to brand saturation, with a cycling riff and sing along chorus that could, somewhat ironically, work in a Apple commercial. The chiming "Final Days of Nineteen" trades a collaged lyrical approach for a direct and sweet coming of age tale, frosted with melancholic violins and a gooey, overdriven solo at its core. The culture critique continues on the galloping "Award Show". Over harmonized guitars straight out of your Dad's record collection, the band rejects the dark path of harvesting followers and likes simply because "the opposite of both love and hate is indifference". Stoner rock ripper "Legacy Act" worships at the altar of Hendrix and Sabbath while reminding us the myth of meritocracy was disproven long ago, and "for the umpteenth time", unqualified, evil bullies need to be removed from power. Before things get too serious, Onesie throws in a jocular curveball like "Vanity Plates", a bass hook driven Bowie/Pixies mashup that assures us the "oldsters and randos" we see every day on our streets and screens are as clueless and clumsy as we are.

The product of a non-careerist band very much on their own trip, Umpteenth shines as a rock record unconcerned with any particular era, style, or scene. By juxtaposing bile-tinged poetry with bright hooks, Onesie keep the discontented weirdo in all of us supplied with enough, um, content for another day in the fray.