From Home

The Rubinoos were one of those mid-1970s Beserkley bands that helped to refine the sound of power pop. If you remember them, it’s probably because you were alive when they had a big hit with their cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now” (long before the much less awesome Tiffany version) and possibly for “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” They fizzled out in the mid-1980s, when power pop was in a general slump, but emerged again in the 2000s. From Home was released in 2019, but sounds like it could have been made in 1978: their voices are still strong, and they still write evergreen pop songs that would have sounded perfectly at home on one of their early albums. Highlights include “January” (my gosh, those harmonies) and the charmingly titled “Masochist Davey.”