Tony Molina writes short songs that feel like big songs.
A veteran of the Bay Area punk scene, Molina’s 2013 solo debut Dissed And Dismissed packs 12 songs with the triumphant fuzz of Weezer and the raw tenderness of Teenage Fanclub into a compact 11 minutes and 20 seconds. Meanwhile 2016’s Confront The Truth fits eight Beatlesque love tunes into a clean 10 minutes.
Clocking in at 14 and a half minutes, Kill The Lights is Molina’s most verbose project yet, with the elusive minimalist’s current frequency honed on jangly Rickenbacker folk rock in the image of the Byrds or Jackson C. Frank.
While Molina’s short-song schtick could be mistakenly written off as a gimmick, he’s repeatedly used his challenging creative constraint to craft perfect, complete songs without an ounce of fat on them.
Score: 💡💡💡💡/5
Ryan is a writer, editor and vinyl collector currently based in Los Angeles. He started Mini Music Critic in 2017.