The Goods - Don’t Spoil the Fun (2025)

You can’t talk about Don’t Spoil the Fun without starting at the beginning. April Fools is two minutes of pure sunshine — a power pop gem so instantly gratifying you might need to play it three times before moving on. And when you do, you’ll find that the rest of The Goods’ debut LP more than lives up to it.

Singer-songwriter Rob Good (Ryli, Sob Stories, Cocktails) does most of the heavy lifting here, with Cherron Arens and Gabriel Monnot adding bass and guitar on about half the tracks. Relative to the band’s 2023 self-titled EP, this full-length trades some of the punch for shimmer — “a more open, sparkly, melodic sound,” as Good told S.W. Lauden in an interview for Remember the Lightning. It’s a natural evolution: where the EP raced forward, this one breathes, glows, and lingers.

The press materials mention Big Star, The Byrds, and Matthew Sweet, and those comparisons make sense — but they only hint at what’s here. Don’t Spoil the Fun has that timeless guitar-pop warmth where melody reigns supreme. It’s familiar by design, flawless in execution, and irresistibly easy to fall for. And that April Fools song? Far from the only highlight here, find some of my other current favorites below. Trust me, this is a record that quietly yet confidently insists you stay a little longer.

It’s a record about rediscovery — of sound, of purpose, of joy in craft. And if Don’t Spoil the Fun is any indication, The Goods have found exactly what they were looking for.