Ducks Ltd.: Hollowed Out

Continuing my Best of 2024 list, here is a song by Canadian jangle pop band Ducks Ltd. Although they are from Canada, they might as well be from New Zealand because they present a perfect throwback to the sound of New Zealand jangle pop in the ’80s (especially The Bats). Back in the mid-late ’80s, the music of bands like The Chills, The Clean, The Bats, Tall Dwarves, and other artists on the Flying Nun label swept through America’s college radio circuit with an onslaught of reissues and compilations of music that New Zealanders had been listening to for a decade. Harm’s Way is the band’s second album, and it quickly runs through nine catchy jangle-pop tunes. The vibe is there from start to finish and ends much too quickly. Much like the great 2023 album by The Lemon Twigs, Ducks Ltd. have honed in on a sound that has been unfortunately pushed out of the world of popular pop/rock music for decades and is finally making a comeback. Old dudes like me are rejoicing at this new interest in the sound that made college radio king in the ’80s, and hopefully a new generation of fans is being created who will go out and rediscover the thousands of great power-pop, jangle-pop, and indie-rock releases from 35-50 years ago.

To learn more about Ducks Ltd., check out their Wikipedia page.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

• Best of 2024