Teenage Kicks represent a wonderful shift in popular music that’s been happening over the past year—a return to rock ‘n’ roll. Now, I’m not complaining about, nor am I apologizing for, all the non-rock music of recent memory. I’ve loved much of it, but it’s been a while since swagger and guitar solos have been considered cool and it feels good to be able to celebrate them.

It’s the kind of music you feel in your chest, that fills you with energy and power and joy. It’s the stuff that makes me remember being 15 and feeling like rock n’ roll was the only thing keeping me alive, like it was the oxygen in my blood fueling every pulse in my body.

Hell, Teenage Kicks say it better than I could, from their bio:

Their music is like the girl you meet in high school that you end up marrying ten years later. Their songs stay with you, and you grow to love more about them as time goes by. It’s not a backdrop for drunken twenty-somethings awkwardly lusting after each other in dark clubs, but a soundtrack for young hearts finding true love and sharing moments that will stay with them forever. In a nutshell, it’s rock ‘n’ roll.

And on “Lose Your Head” off their upcoming EP Rational Anthems, frontman Peter van Helvoort sells it. He sings like his words are the gospel, like they can and will actually save you—and frankly, I believe him.