Model Martel - A Thousand Couple Times LP - Orange Vinyl

Snappy Little Numbers (2025)

An album being on Snappy Little Numbers is usually all that it takes to stir my interest.  It's a label with a remarkable string of quality records that always has way more hits than misses, so I'm going to pay attention as it is.  Throw in a band name that references pro wrestling, and not only am I paying attention, but now I'm setting expectations.  You don't want to waste a good band name on a band that's bunk.

Luckily for all involved, Model Martel lives up to their name and their label.  This quartet has put together an album of punk-adjacent songs that are heavy on melody, choruses and hooks that get lodged in your head pretty easily.  I say punk-adjacent because the ethos is surely there.  There's that energy and scrappiness that are the hallmarks of of any good punk rock record, but this is a band that's not yelling or hollering or playing a million miles an hour for the sake of it.  They're crafting songs that draw equally from the 90s alternative rock cannon (the good stuff, not like Stone Temple Pilots) as they are from their Lookout records catalog.

Also, I feel the need to call out how much I like the vocals.  So often these days there's a band that's playing something I like musically, but as soon as the singer steps up to the microphone, I'm out.  There's this thing that seems to be going around that requires bands making melodic punk records to scream over the top of them as opposed to sing.  Not the case here.  There's a roughness to the vocals that keep them authentic, but not in a way where the inherent melody is being sacrificed.  It's good stuff and I wish more bands could pull it off.

Just as I was lamenting the lack of good new records by new bands, here comes Model Martel to make a liar out of me.  It's probably the best debut album I've heard this year by a long shot and easily among the overall ten best albums of 2025.  Definitely worth checking out.

Model Martel -  A Thousand Couple Times:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/a-thousand-couple-times