Coming from an historically unlikely source — Young Guv is the pseudonym of Ben Cook, guitarist for hardcore rock-operateurs Fucked Up — Ripe 4 Luv evokes memories of prime Cheap Trick, Marshall Crenshaw and the Monroes with its chiming guitars, blanketing vocal harmonies and teenage-kicks lyrics. It's not reverential to the point of being overtly imitative — there's an Ariel Pink-like level of distance from the source material, and slower, swampier side closers "Aquarian" and "Wrong Crowd" provide enough variety to keep the album from coming off as pastiche.
"'Ripe 4 Luv' is a beautiful album for beautiful people," reads the fake label-head announcement email that accompanies the album on its SoundCloud page. "We're going to break Nielsen SoundScan. We're going straight to #1 on iTunes!" We for one welcome our new power-pop overlords. Help fulfill the iTunes prophecy when the album gets official release March 10 on Slumberland Records.