Considering Mikal Cronin’s MCII feels like a more wistfully indie take on power-pop, I had a pretty easy time falling for it when it came out in May. However, now it’s getting a little difficult to look at it as anything more than a nice remnant of this past summer. This is probably due to my first memory of listening to MCII being during the trip to Boston that marked the beginning of my summer, while the last time I remember listening to it was during the long drive from Seattle to L.A. that more or less marked the end of my summer. Now I’m sure I’ve listened to MCII once or twice since then, but for whatever reason, Mikal Cronin’s collection of hard-rockin’ pop tunes hasn’t quite been able to transcend being anything more than just a really good summer album. Which of course is dumb and irrational, but this is the kind of reasoning that starts to take over your brain when a top 10 albums of the year list is just on the horizon.