Nurses return with Dracula, the follow-up to their 2009 homemade psych gem Apple's Acre. Dracula is steeped in the strange pop brew that bore Apple's Acre, with the band's unmistakable elastic melodies, heady pop hooks and unconventional knack for catchy songwriting that gets under your skin. But where Apple's Acre was an insular album, recorded primarily in an attic in Idaho using just an internal Macbook microphone and primitive recording software, Dracula is bursting. It's bolder, heavier, with deep grooves, dubby basslines and a focus on rhythm. It's an album with pure physical qualities. Apple's Acre was an album made for headphones; Dracula needs a sound system. What has not changed is the undeniable constant in Nurses' body of work: their immediate and catchy pop songs. The band embraces hooks and melodies--yes, they turn them upside down and inside out--but at their core, the band (and Dracula) are defined by pop songwriting.

Let yourself love what you love: the idea is simple and yet the act is deceivingly hard. Nevertheless, when you are in the presence of Ryan William Lynch, songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist for San Francisco’s Dominant Legs, you know without question that he has done just that. And he’s asking you to join him.

To judge by Dominant Legs’ sound—pop songs culled from the textures of past decades, but with a classic songwriting approach—this man has many loves. Shot through with addictive synth melodies and vocal harmonies, crossed with a chic shimmer of Nile Rogers style guitar, and flecked with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac and, yes, Tracy Chapman, Dominant Legs songs are as difficult to describe as they are to resist.

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