Seraphina Lotkhamnga on May 16th, 2013

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“I’ve been starting over for a long time / I’m not ready for the second wave / The weight of seeing through,” sings Mikal Cronin on the MCII’s opening track “Weight.” However, Cronin’s delivery is chipper on this track and, for that matter, most of the rest of follow-up to his self-titled debut. Cronin’s first record focused on a lot on endings – whether they involved the end of college, the end of a serious relationship or the end of his time in Los Angeles. But his sophomore release has a sunny disposition no matter the subject matter. Perhaps it’s because the recording revolved around beginnings this time. These beginnings include moving to San Francisco to permanently play with his long-time bud Ty Segall, and now, his first release on Merge Records. Although his association with Segall will always lump Cronin in the scuzzy garage-rock genre, MCII’s definitely proves that he has chops aside from knowing how to work a fuzz pedal. These new choruses soar higher than the tunes on his debut could have foreshadowed, so much that Cronin can easily be considered a power pop guy now. The appropriate title track “Change” gets another party house setting in its music video, but the invisible kid who takes a risk at the end is a nice way to represent Cronin’s spectacular growth in songcraft.

||| Stream: “Weight” and “Shout It Out” below.

||| Live: Mikal Cronin plays May 24 at the Echo with Pangea and Gap Dream.