Pleasure Pill - Hang A Star

San Diego’s Pleasure Pill has spent the last few years riding the line between underground reverence and mainstream breakthrough. With their debut studio album Hang A Star, set for release on June 27, 2025, via à La Carte Records, the band plants its flag firmly in the lineage of Britpop revival—but does it with a distinctly modern, American slant, avoiding mere nostalgia trips in favour of vibrant reinvention.

Formed by brothers Jonah and Ethan Paz along with childhood friends from the local DIY punk scene, Pleasure Pill might have grown up skating warehouse lots and playing basement shows, but Hang A Star is the sound of a band stepping confidently into the limelight. It’s ambitious, anthemic, and dripping in self-awareness. The band wears its influences proudly—Blur, Primal Scream, The Stone Roses—but instead of simply mimicking those bands, they filter their admiration through sharp hooks, shimmering production, and biting emotional honesty.

The album opens with "Favorite Color Gold," a woozy yet determined slice of psych-tinged pop-rock. Jonah Paz’s vocals float over layered harmonies and swirling textures, setting the tone for an album both accessible and exploratory. "So Long" leans more into Brit-rock swagger, propelled by Ethan Paz’s crisp, jangly guitars and a rhythm section that’s clearly spent time dissecting the grooves of Oasis' Definitely Maybe.

"Not Giving Up" and "In Our Time" provide some of the album’s most memorable choruses and hooks, balancing youthful defiance with shimmering, wide-open production. These are songs meant for late-night drives with your friends, having your windows rolled down; futures uncertain but hearts on fire.

The album's centrepiece comes with "My Way to You," a sprawling, cinematic anthem that Jonah himself describes as “large, powerful, and anthemic.” It’s the album’s emotional peak, steadily building from quiet introspection into a euphoric burst of guitar heroism and sweeping harmonies—a love letter to every band Pleasure Pill has ever admired, distilled into five glorious minutes.

The album's lead single, "Line Up The Stars," delivers exactly what it promises: club-ready energy dressed up in leather jackets and shimmering sequins. With dance floor propulsion and power-pop harmonies, it’s an intoxicating mix of reckless abandon and youthful yearning. The song balances hedonism with reflection, proving that Pleasure Pill is just as interested in searching for meaning as they are in starting the party.

Later tracks like "One to Blame" and the psych-drenched "Wonder How" lean into their live energy, echoing the electric buzz of last year’s Heaven Can Wait live album. "Don't Fly Away," one of the most hyped tracks ahead of release, takes on almost mythic proportions with Jonah boldly stating that this track is their "Ed Sullivan moment." Thankfully, the song lives up to the hype, swirling with jangly guitars, plaintive vocals, and a sense of cultural hunger rarely heard in indie rock today.

Additionally, if you're a physical music buyer, then you're in luck. CD buyers of Hang a Star get treated to a bonus track, "Feel Alive," a final burst of dopamine that encapsulates the band’s ethos: pleasure, feeling, and chasing life’s high points at full speed.

Hang A Star doesn’t reinvent the wheel—but it polishes it, paints it neon, and sends it spinning into a sky full of dreams. Pleasure Pill might not yet be a household name, but with an album like this, they’re aiming for the stars—and it feels like they might just get there.

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