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The Sourdrops - Just Throw It In! EP (2025)

Artist: The Sourdrops

Author: Sarah

Date: 09/05/2025

Listen: Bandcamp | Youtube

I was so excited to see this one come across my feed, because their debut had me thinking that they had a lot of potential to be our next favorite shambling C86 devotees. With Just Throw it In!, I'm pleasantly surprised to be wrong wrong; the Sourdrops are greatly improved as performers here, plus they're moving toward a style that can't be entirely described with reference to a single band.

I think my favorite songs here are the ones sung by Kate, with "Elliott's Song (Buttercup Boy)" taking the crown as the best song the band has released so far. The chorus of "Off the Hook" is also pretty great, though would be better with a bit more power to the vocals (in that way, it sort of makes me think of Tuscadero's "Nancy Drew", which falls a bit flat in the Teenbeat version by comparison to the Elektra rerecording). Even still, I know I'm going to be singing that "I thought that I was off the hook" line to myself for the next week.

On the other hand, I really like Matty's vocals, but think his songs here are a bit lackluster. "Saw a Shadow" is the most obviously derivative song here, with its main guitar riff sounding a bit like Beat Happening covering "Gruesome Castle". Of course, that just goes to show the improvement the band has had; "Saw a Shadow" would easily have been one of the best songs on their debut! "Vassar Girl" goes the furthest away from the sound of their debut and I respect it for that, but it has a weak melody and I don't think the recorder coming in at the end quite works for it.

There's one song I didn't cover up there, and that's the Intermission track. It sounds pretty similar to the Intro track on their debut, but it lasts for almost 2 minutes instead of the 20 seconds of the latter. I don't really think it's interesting enough to be 2 minutes, honestly? It sounds nice enough at first, but I'm pretty much skipping it on all my relistens, I have to admit.