Mikal Cronin + Calvin Love + The Cairo Gang

Mikal Cronin mostly recalls the scruffier guitar bubblegum of the ’90s—Matthew Sweet, Sloan, Velvet Crush, the Lemonheads, etc. You know the sound: everyman lyrics; huge, bittersweet choruses about broken relationships; the occasional "woo-ooh-ooh." Cronin may be a student of Guitar Pop 101, but with the fresh touches of piano and blown-out acoustic guitar on albums like 2013's MCII, he gets an A+.