B-Side Guys

There’s a version of this song that would sand down every rough edge and come out competent and forgettable. Joseph Nagle doesn’t make that version. “Blonde Haired Lover Girl” leans into its own slight wrongness, a melody that keeps resolving somewhere you didn’t quite expect, draped over garage rock energy and vocals that owe more to 1965 than 2025.

Nagle describes the track as modern British indie guitar sounds filtered through his trademark 60s vocal sensibility, and that tension is exactly what keeps it interesting. The rhythm section pushes with real urgency while the melody above it does something looser and more slippery. It shouldn’t hold together as well as it does.

Power pop has always been about compression: maximum feeling, minimum runtime, no wasted motion. This fits the mold without feeling like an exercise in it.