It’s bleedin’ hot out there, and the promised thunderstorms for yesterday have still not arrived today. The sun’s set to bake and the air conditioning’s apparently set to off.

A perfect time for “More Sweet Soul.”

Eschewing the notion, “you can play punk even if you can’t play your instruments,” Pretty Girls Make Graves practice a keen sort of precision in their music that stands in contrast to the loud, fast and hard songs they play on this first album. The net effect is a collection of excellent tracks that pull out all the stops, but reveal complexities in the guitar lines and drum fills the closer you look.

I missed their last show in Toronto in April due to prior commitments. I hear they’re even better live, though—presumably the result of touring for the better part of four years—so you can be sure I won’t make that mistake again.