Hoopla - Weird Nightmare
Dine Alone/Sub Pop
Released on May 1st, 2026
METZ METZ METZ!!!! The last time I saw Alex Edkins perform live, he was ripping off the iconic Silver Dollar logo from the once-legendary Silver Dollar Room’s wall and hoisting promoter Dan Burke into the crowd, celebrating the final night of a beloved Toronto punk institution. It was loud, it was abrasive, it was cathartic; basically, everything a Metz show was supposed to feel like but with the added emotional weight of saying goodbye to the community. Edkins, ever the student of the scene he came from was the perfect frontman for the moment.
Oh. wait a minute… this isn’t a Metz review. What is this beautiful power pop? Alex can actually sing? Are those honest to goodness hooks that aren’t buried under an endless wave of metallic feedback? Am I losing my mind here? No, this is real and it’s so good. Hoopla is the 2nd record from Alex Edkins’ solo project Weird Nightmare and while it’s under a different name, Hoopla feels as much like an expansion of the layers and textures Edkins started to incorporate into of Up on Gravity Hill, Metz’ underrated final release as it does a logical progression from the first Weird Nightmare album.
I’ve always been a sucker for power-pop and the bright, balanced production from Spoon’s Jim Eno (another long-time favourite band of mine) gives Edkins’ voice and the layers of shimmering guitar plenty of room. Though the guitar is the primary instrument and sits highest in the mix, there are other instruments beyond the typical guitar-bass-drums configuration, with piano, bells and other atypical percussive instruments. At times the record soars, others it jangles. In both cases, it sounds like a long-lost Replacements album, a comparison that the band’s label leaned into in the press release, with Edkins’ voice and phrasing eerily reminiscent of Paul Westerberg. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison, but it fits.
Opener “Headful of Rain” sets the tone for what’s to come, while tracks 2 & 3 (“Might See you There” and “Baby Don’t”) really demonstrates the evolution of Edkins as a songwriter. “Baby Don’t” is the most accessible song I think he’s ever written. It’s deceptively sunny and simple, with the classic pop switch from major to minor key in the bridge; a perfect summer ear worm almost engineered to be played in a car stereo.
“Forever Elsewhere” feels less like a long-lost Mats song and more like Edkins ripped a page out of former tour mate Dylan Baldi (Cloud Nothings) songbook. It’s romantic without quite crossing the line into ‘emo’, and as Edkins says himself, it’s the most optimistic song he’s ever written. “I wanted to send an unequivocal positive message into the world. The line ‘Love, it will come,’ summarizes the overall theme: if things feel hopeless and the world is bleak, don’t give up, keep pushing. I like to think of it as a pep talk wrapped in fuzzy guitars.” There is a driving energy to the song, feeling like it might collapse in on itself, something Edkins attributed to the fact that he, bassist Roddy Kuester and drummer Loel Campbell only took two takes to record it.
“If You Should Turn Away” shifts away from the 80s influence and turns back the clock to the 60s, with an almost psychedelic, jangle-pop sound, complete with a gorgeous falsetto vocal on the chorus and a lead guitar that leans into tremolo rather than distortion. It’s a beautiful song on the back half of an album full of beautiful songs. The most surprising track however is “Bright City Lights”, an honest-to-goodness duet with Julianna Riolino, trading verses and harmonizing throughout.
Making the transition from fronting a legendary band to a solo career is difficult - just ask Paul Westerberg. In this case, Edkins seems to be doing exactly that and doing it his own way. If 2026 me would have told 2017 me that night at the Silver Dollar that an album like Hoopla would be the next phase of Edkins’ career, I wouldn’t have believed myself. Believe it.
