(Self-released, digital)
Of history’s great confluences, highlights include the Yalta Conference, the meeting between Socrates and Plato that birthed Western philosophy, and a hyper-driven brainiac mission called the Manhattan Project. But don’t overlook a timely and fortuitously happy collision between Buddy Holly, a Fender Stratocaster and a girl named Peggy Sue.
Indeed, spinning off from 1957’s two-and-a-half-minute hit single “Peggy Sue” — which was, in fact, written by Jerry Allison and Norman Petty but went fully alchemical with Holly’s performance — have been thousands of hopeful, sad, angsty, giddy and love-blushed songs written by young musicians in bands. They’re instantly identifiable by hormonal and post-hormonal desire in the lyrics, the sugar-high choruses, and the immortal building blocks of guitar, bass and drum.
Perpetuating that e’er-golden tradition are Burlington’s Leddy Moss, headed up by vocalist/guitarist Lance Whitesel and lead guitarist/backing vocalist James Lignos, beefed up by the rhythm section of drummer Joe Walzer and bassist Julian Bunch. The debut Leddy Moss album is called Growing Pains, and while variously described and/or marketed as indie pop, folk pop, melodic indie rock, emo folk and possibly power-pop-by-a-crackling-autumn-firepit, it’s just a promising and listenable set of a dozen tunes (mostly) chronicling their own boy-meets-girl sagas.
The band’s signature identifiers are Whitesel’s yearning and slightly nasal vocal delivery, which recalls a young Tom Petty — before the late genius got too far along in his three-pack-a-day habit — and Lignos’ contrapuntal and heavily echoed propensity for single-note guitar lines.
These elements combine with the sort of strummy and jangly structures that have long buoyed fans of immortal or less famous (but still great) bands, from Holly and the early Beatles through to the Byrds, R.E.M., Gin Blossoms, Weezer, Father John Misty and contemporary acts cited by Leddy Moss as inspirations: Caamp, Modern Baseball and Mom Jeans.
Growing Pains jumps ebulliently out of the blocks on the bouncy “I Know That” with adhesive-strength melodies, then shifts into “Coconut Beach,” a happy-hour anthem that might inspire an overserved customer, feeling a bit wistful and nostalgic, to become even more overserved.
Other standouts are the Nashville-seasoned “Simple Living,” featuring twangy vocals; the wide-ranging “Evergreen”; “Around,” with its simple but imprinting guitar hook and litany of romantic descriptions and evidentiary anecdotes; and “Side to Side,” boasting an arpeggioed opening, a clever rhythm shift and descending falsetto bridge, and an earnestly confessional conclusion.
At times, the sameness of the song tempos can cause the tunes to blur from one to another, particularly in this age when one rarely is just listening to something rather than multitasking.
It’ll be interesting to see how Leddy Moss evolve, particularly if they grow a bit more experimental with the next batch of songs. A listen to, just for two examples, the witty punch of “What She Does to Me” by the Producers or the heartbreaking extreme of Gin Blossoms’ “Pieces of the Night” might be fun and edifying for Leddy Moss.
Growing Pains is out now on major streaming services.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2 2025.
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