I hate to echo an uncomfortably obvious sentiment, but springtime demands a windows-down driving album, and The Reputation have made mine for this year. To Force a Fate follows the same trajectory established by Elizabeth Ellmore's past albums with this band and Sarge, and this one stops with her wedged firmly between young adulthood and adulthood. Ellmore's singing about happy hours and wrenching live-in-lover shit, but she still sounds like she hasn't exactly shelved her JD Salinger novels for good yet either. Musically, The Reputation will undoubtedly go over well with pretty much any high-schooler who like Jimmy Eat World, Element 101 and the like, but they've realized that a few hooks and some morose power chords won't cut it after years of plugging away at the same formula, so they pull a few tricks that bands typically pull when they want to force themselves to grow-up (piano ballads, horn sections, more harmonies, uncharacteristically pretty pop tunes that sound a lot more indie or mainstream friendly depending on who you ask). Thankfully, The Reputation avoid showing any outward signs of stylistic strain (well, for the most part -- try as they might, the piano ballads just don't fit) and sound like a young-skewing power-pop band their age should sound. The choruses are bloody brilliant, and Ellmore's voice works better with this type of music than anyone else's, save for perhaps Bob Nanna's. Clean the pollen off your windshield, crank up the ol' Falcon, and rock this sucker next time you head to the grocery store.