Sheer Mag is a local band formed in Philadelphia in 2014. This band is an alternative band with ‘70s riffs and garage punk attitude. On March 1st Sheer Mag dropped a new indie rock album after a five-year wait with their last album released in 2019. The band’s new album Playing Favorites is a revivalism of 70s rock. The most popular songs on the album are “Moonstruck” “All Lined Up” and “Playing Favorites”. This band album consists of instrumentals that remind you of Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, and other popular 70s bands, with their iconic 70s guitar style.

To me, a song always needs a good guitar part. I think this album succeeded in this, the guitar throughout the whole album was very enjoyable and was a key addition to the album. The guitar reminded me of the band KISS, really sticking to the 70s theme. The lead singer Christina Halladay, has a very unique singing style and I think this has both a good and bad effect on the album for the same reason, it adds character but also takes away from the song. In my opinion, it works well for some songs but ruins a little bit of them too. My personal favorites are “Don’t Come Lookin’ ”  with a pop-rock sound to it, and “Mechanical Garden” going through all iconic bands like KISS, Queen, and April Wine. 

Playing Favorites was an impressive album, bringing the 70s into 2024. Overall I feel this was a good album to drop after a five-year wait, the instrumentals made the album what it was meant to be. The listener Ljubinko Zivkovic posted a review on Post Trash that says “Their sound has acquired full fruition on this album and it’s displayed through all eleven songs. Yes, it is music that has that “pop” tag in front of it all, but it is pop of the excellent variety.” I would say if the 70s rock or pop music is your thing I feel like this would be a great album for you, for me, I would have to give it an 8/10 with my favorite track being “Mechanical Garden”.