Trolley

“Write what you know,” is standard-issue advice to aspiring writers, though it could just as easily apply to aspiring musicians. Milwaukee’s Trolley certainly isn’t green—the band has been a local mainstay for more than 15 years—but its adherence to sticking to what it knows is laudable: Trolley plays straight-up power-pop, and plays it well. On the new Things That Shine And Glow, the band stays well within its comfort zone, and manages to deliver another assured and charming effort. The 14 songs that make up the album are certainly of a piece—it’s impossible to go more than a minute without running headlong into a big chorus (“She’s The Kind Of Girl”) or a reliable minor seventh guitar chord (“’Til I’m Gone”).

Updated 11/28/2011