Lightning Love's credo since its earliest days, with Leah Diehl recording demos in her basement apartment has been a mix of mashed lyrics of anxiety, humiliation, and isolation up against chirpy, poppy anthems. Those tracks that made it online and struck a raw nerve with bookers around the Midwest who asked her to play some shows. Leah roped in her friend Ben Collins and her brother Aaron Diehl to fill out the sound, and, thus, Lightning Love was truly born. The Blonde Album is simply an extension of those same core ideas, with Leah experiencing, as she puts it, "more breakups and an immeasurable amount of anxiety" and turning those into gorgeous, catchy pop tunes. What other band could make the pathos of "waking up and passing out" sound so god damn inviting as they do on "I Know"? And who else could dress down a distant lover as a "deadbeat" and, thanks to a pulsing bit of synthesizer and a bouncy melody, make it come off as charming? Of course, this is just the recorded guise of the band. In concert, Lightning Love's fangs come out and they turn into something tighter, louder, and faster like a goddamn cheetah. But that's what makes Lightning Love so great: you get the acid and the sweet, the pain and the pleasure in one glorious dose. So, order up another round and don't fret if there's a little bit of drunken crying at the end of the night. There'll be lots of dancing leading up to it.