Colleen Green and the eastern shore scene

The real cool world of Colleen Green; photographed by Jenna Lemieux.

Without a doubt — Colleen Green stands as one of the most important people in the rock & roll landscape. Forever donning the timeless sense of Wayfarer frames suave, the dye was cast with the break out smash Milo Goes to Compton (an overt nod to the cover art aesthetic of the eponymous caricature found on the cover of Descendents records), followed up with the lauded releases Sock It To Me, I Want to Grow Up, Casey's Tape / Harmontown Loops and even an ambitious cover record of Blink 182's Dude Ranch (not unlike labelmate Jenn Champion's affinity for the legendary Poway, California pop punk band).

Returning to the artist's home base of Lowell, Massachusetts from Oakland, California — Green is back with a record that remains true to their DIY ethos (vocals, guitar, bass, drum machine) and that trademark electric sound that is full of determination, vision and an ultra addictive and catchy aesthetic velocity. Created at a time when the entire world hangs within the balance of uncertainty, Colleen's new album Cool represents an artist at the height of their powers who understands the magnitude and effect of their sound, knows what they want, understands what they don't want and can create a damn near perfect record that rips from start to finish (a skilled art and prodigious craft that Green has arguably honed since the release of Milo). Cool is executed with an attitude of overcoming the ailments of humanity. Demolishing the blockades of insecurities and imposter syndrome with a patented creative trademark license to generate some of the greatest and genuine bedroom pop jams of our time. Cool lives up to it’s moniker and more. We are not in the business of calling it here at Week in Pop, but this is a strong contender for one of the year’s best records.

Cool continues Colleen's album oeuvre into it's most monumental and poignant moment yet. The biting and big stepping "Someone" goes for the jugular in a skewering of derelict drifter dandies in the apathetic inverted-worlds, while "I Wanna Be a Dog" entertains a similar angst and allusions towards acts of self-abasement as it's origin material with Green updating the proto-punk standard for a teeth grinding sideshow of frustration and futility. "Posi Vibes" sparks up the positive mental attitude vibrations with a strain of Colleen's nuclear reactor No. 4 riffs, that takes a detour into the less desirable freeways of deep mood frequencies on "Highway", before switching lanes with "Natural Chorus", channeling 70s kraut exalted majesties into sharp as all get out 60s side-b album interstellar overhauls and overdrives.

“You Don't Exist" pushes aside the irrelevant and insignificant ones with a rough cold shoulder guitar slashing rhythm rider, to elevating the power pop ante with blistering displays of excellence in economic pop precision in executing anthems for our time like the pomp of "It's Nice to Be Nice". Tales and the scales of matrimony are weighed in on the hilarious and hard hitting rocker "How Much Should You Love Your Husband", followed by a modern ballad for real down to earth connections and blissfulness that abound on the brink of the world's collapse with the endearing "I Believe In Love". The record then sails off into the upset sunset on the instrumental closer "Pressure to Cum", that concludes Green’s greatest marvel to date in Ennio Morricone fashion with a modern spaghetti western exit into the vanishing point of the dusty horizon. Join us after the jump as Colleen presents an exclusive list of five current favorite locales of inspiration:

Colleen Green presents: New England Beaches I Have Visited Lately

Rock & roll royalty — Colleen Green; photographed by Jason MacDonald.

Salisbury

The first beach I visited after moving back to New England. This beach has a small boardwalk with ice cream, fried dough, pizza, lemonade and a wide range of unsavory characters. I went there by myself after work once and got lemonade and a corn dog. The corn dog was good although the exterior wasn’t as crunchy as I had hoped it would be. The first time I went here this year, the water was extremely cold and my legs felt numb as soon as I stepped in it, but that didn't stop my friend and I from going in about seven times. It was also very hot that day and I got very badly burned on about 1/20th of my body. No regrets!

Salisbury State Beach

This beach is very close to the regular Salisbury Beach, but it doesn’t have any amenities. I can’t remember which day of the week it was, but this beach was a lot more crowded than I expected. Nevertheless, I feel like a failure anytime I go to the ocean and don’t swim in it, so swim I did at high tide, which was magical, and at low tide, which was marred by my run-in with a floating syringe. On the way home I treated myself to a coffee Oreo frappe and all was right with the world.

Brick by brick with Colleen Green; photographed by Jenna Lemieux.

Hampton

I had to take my car into the shop recently and while it was being worked on my mom and I went to Hampton Beach, NH. I haven’t been in years but she likes to go there with her best friend Sandy. It ended up being pretty cold and windy so neither of us swam, but lying in the sun was nice and I took a selfie for my challenge. Then we walked up and down and got cocktails at some place. I got some kind of spicy Margarita and she got a Mojito. She loves Mojitos.

Colleen Green among overgrown fields of wildflowers; photographed by Jenna Lemieux.

Stagefort Park

My first beach outing of 2021 found me haphazardly driving to and fro searching for a beach that didn’t cost $50 to park at. I hadn’t planned at all and ended up at Stagefort Park in Gloucester, MA. My walk from the car to the water provided a pretty scene complete with an anti-vax rally and a cute little snack shack. This beach was very narrow, wet and rife with earwigs, but I enjoyed myself and felt happy. I ate a sandwich, walked into the water, and read The Birth of the Nation by Arthur M. Schlesinger.

The inimitable DIY rock phenom — Colleen Green; press photo via Bandcamp / Hardly Art.

Nahant

My visit to Nahant Beach in Lynn, MA was one of the most divine experiences I’ve had since moving back to the east coast. I was led to a secret area where a friend and I snacked on grapes and Hint of Lime Tostitos and drank homemade margaritas. We lounged on the sand and swam in the water even though the sun was going down and it was kind of cold. Five hours passed as we watched the setting sun surrender to huge graying clouds that eventually filled the sky. When 10 PM rolled around we decided it was time to go, so we packed up and tried to go to a nearby bar but it was closed.

Colleen Green’s Cool is available now via Hardly Art.