On their sophomore EP, the Bensalem, Philadelphia rock quartet The Burgeoning weld their pop and indie-rock influences into seven tunes of flourishing, exciting, and clever sounds. Somewhat of a family outfit with frontman Logan Thierjung and bassist Alex Thierjung being siblings, the contagious guitar work from Mark Menkevich and propulsive drumming from Brandon Bradley round out the talent.
Opening track “Reboot” is indeed dream-like with a hazy atmosphere and blurry, indistinct vocals with a potent blast of a surreal landscape. This moves into the title track, “Loud Dreams,” which follows a similar path with more decipherable singing and beautiful layers of shoegaze-like pop and plenty of intricate mini-solos. “Beautiful Rampage,” near the middle, is truth in packaging, and is the EP’s highlight with a more aggressive display of instrumentation almost bordering on alt-rock, and shows a broader vocal range for Logan Thierjung.
Deeper cuts like “Caveman” are full of quirky pop flavor that’s danceable, arena rock-friendly and primed for the FM dial, while the lush, exploratory “Lust Wander” is one of the most varied offerings here in terms of tempo and volume. The EP’s back end brings the spoken word opening of “Rain” and quick-paced closer “Streets,” which exits the listen just as strong as we entered it.
This isn’t exactly an easy band to put a finger on, which is rarely a bad thing. Though there’s certainly a Brit-rock influence, and undeniably The Beatles, there are also modern day rock influences from Franz Ferdinand or even The Killers. Thankfully, the things the band really excels at—great guitar melodies, fun bass work and easily palatable singing—make them a breath of fresh air in the world of indie-pop and ideal for fans of ’90s alt-rock.
Now with two well-received EPs under their belt, I think we would all agree that it’s time for an album from these four skilled young men.
