Somos The Temple Of Plenty

Somos are as no-frills and trend-averse as it gets. The Boston band works in catchy, passionate three-minute rock songs recorded with too much punch to be lo-fi, too melodically contoured to be punk. So even with its blunt-force drum rolls and jagged chording, "Dead Wrong" sneaks up on you: on one end, it packs so many short, sharp hooks, the chorus can fly right by you on the first listen. They strike a weirdly rare balance in the process, situating themselves between blue-collar indie rock and a white-collar life.

Michael Fiorentino sets the dramatic stakes ("Empire and a crown of thorns/Today you get two for one") and reveals the all-too-familiar source of that despair: tucking in your shirt, staring at a computer, "Shaking hands til your arms fell off". "Somos" translates roughly to "We are", and on "Dead Wrong" they wisely commiserate with the workforce drowning rather than casting judgment, gifting a car song for people who aren't so much working for the weekend as they are working until the inevitable bitter end.