Distractor - This Time I Got It Figured Out (2018)

For such an exuberant and wily little release, the making of Distractor's second LP was fraught with tragedy and redemption. Founded in a garage in Costa Mesa, California, the synth punk band began life in 2015 as the campy ramblings of friends Glen Christensen and Will Sipos. Pairing Devo-esque lo-fi synth pop with bits of post-punk and general goofiness, Distractor spent their first summer playing local shows and releasing a pleasantly quirky debut LP of songs about Dig Dug, jetpacks, and spacemen. With a second record partly recorded, Christensen was diagnosed with cancer, and by October of that year was dead at the age of 25. His remaining bandmates, Sipos, Ronnie Dunmore, and Colin McKibben, opted to put Distractor to bed rather than carry on without their friend and frontman, and they spent a year or so working with Levi Prairie in a band called Blue Flowers. Circling back around in 2017, Sipos was convinced to revive Distractor's dormant second album and, with Prairie and newcomer Sean Campos joining the original crew, they completed the appropriately named This Time I Got It Figured Out and released it via Orange County staple Burger Records in 2018. Boasting a bit higher production value than its predecessor yet retaining the spontaneity that made them so fun the first time around, Distractor's second coming is a cheery listen with a bright, rowdy feel that fits right in with the aesthetic of the Burger universe and honors their fallen comrade.