Soft On Crime - Street Hardware (2024)

Here’s another loose end from late last year: Street Hardware, the sophomore effort from Irish trio Soft On Crime. Their 2023 debut set a high bar with its extraordinary collection of songs, and this follow-up delivers in spades. What sets this band apart is their spontaneity—their songs feel refreshingly unpolished, as if they were conjured on the spot. Soft On Crime come across as a band of nonperfectionists accidently creating near perfect songs.

Take a song like Bread & Roses—it’s life-affirming, a reminder of why cool guitars and sharp melodies will always have the upper hand. Street Hardware brims with basement power-pop gems like this, made by a band clearly uninterested in playing by genre or scene expectations.