Northern California indie pop outfit Safety First features singer-songwriter, home-recording enthsiast Peter Gidlund and friends. This twenty-two minute demo intersperses solo drum machine-backed strummers with full-band pop. It sounds like Rivers Cuomo taking over vocals in the Rentals thanks to bobbing and weaving synths. Lyrically, Gidlund makes clever twists on familiar rhymes, but musical arrangements occasionally lack originality. Parts of "Nervous Breakdown" land a bit close to Wilco's "Outtasite (Outta Mind)," and the chorus on "Jusswanna" apes the TV theme song for "Full House." Even with these missteps, it's likely that with a few weeks of studio time, Safety First could produce a record filled with unabashed pop goodness.
