Sometimes anything goes POP! Fall in Love Again with "Balloon Balloon Balloon"! Submission. That's the word that comes to mind when I embark on the overwhelming pop planet with Kai Slater's Sharp Pins. The universe only works if you submit: submit to love, submit to rock music. Submit to the power emanating from a boy who swings his guitar to create impeccable guitar pop that belongs in the pantheon of idols he ascends to with this album. Of course, it's understandable to be angry at first. Everyone was angry at Big Star for getting too close to the Beatles. And everyone will be angry at Sharp Pins for doing the same thing and then throwing Guided by Voices into the mix. How dare he? Such arrogance. What 20-year-old thinks he can outdo Robert Pollard? “Queen of Globes and Mirrors?” A crime. With the even worse crime of writing songs so mysteriously timeless you might think they were stolen from a lost Beatles tape. “I Don’t Have the Heart” and “(I Want to) Be Your Girl” truly leave you wondering when and where they were created. But if the lo-fi noise-pop of “Balloon Balloon Balloon” reminds us of anything, it’s that only Kai can pull this off. With his 12-string guitar and his relentless obsession with pop music, Slater is uniquely equipped not only to inherit the mantle of Pollard and Chilton, but also to follow in the footsteps of the Byrds, the Temptations, the Four Tops, and every other artist who tries to capture true love on tape. He uses the tactic of asking forgiveness, not permission, when borrowing from these greats, and we have no choice but to forgive Slater for it. He gives us these rock 'n' roll gems, catapulting us from the past into a future that is so melodically flawless yet edgy and sincere that we must also thank him for saving the genre from obscurity.