From the burning, yearning loins of Hunx and His Punx comes this genius slab of homoerotic bubbleglam pop that’s more contagious than the town slut’s cold sore. Destined to be hits across the country, from the beach bungalows of Provincetown to the dive bars of the Castro District, these tunes have the unmistakable golden-shower touch of Justin Champlin, who continues his astonishing streak of perfect rock’n’roll releases in ‘08 (Okmoniks LP, Nobunny LP, Jenkem comp contribution) that are worthy of your hard-earned moolah. ”Good Kisser” puts a same-sex spin on the traditional “boy-meet-girl, boy-loses-girl” trope with the boy in question getting his bi-curiosity piqued by the song’s narrator. Seth Bogart’s vocal delivery is awesomely gay: a fey, casual, seductive whine void of anything resembling innocence. The song ends with Bogart repeating the opening refrain, “I don’t think he’s gonna miss her/’Cause I’m a really good kisser,” and you know that the poor straight kid from the beginning of the song never stood a chance. “Cruisin’” is credited to Coomer and commences with a bouncy bass line that’s probably lifted from a New Order tune. The keyboards kick in after four bars, as do the vocals, and it’s a couple minutes of pure, lascivious pop perfection. The lyrics are even gayer than the A-side—”We’ll take some photographs/In our underwear/I like my boys like steak/All juicy and rare”—and nothing, I repeat, nothing will be able to dislodge this tune from the deepest parts of your brain. No way anything else tops this for me in ‘08—SINGLE OF THE YEAR!
–benke (Bachelor)