The Sino Hearts - Mondo Paradiso (2025)

Compare The Sino Hearts’ new and fifth LP Mondo Paradiso to their debut, and you’ll hear the sonic equivalent of a revolution—as if the 2019 version of the band were an entirely different outfit from the 2025 incarnation. Compare it instead to Lightening The Darkness (2022) and Phantom Rhapsody (2023), and the new record feels like a logical next step. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the leap in songwriting quality—and that’s coming from someone already perfectly happy with the band’s catalog so far.

On Mondo Paradiso, The Sino Hearts shed most of their punky power pop/garage rock ’n’ roll feathers in favor of a broader, more distinctive take on power pop—one that draws freely from all corners of rock history. There’s classic ’50s pop’n’roll (Arkansas Valentine), ’60s-style jangle, frat-rock call-and-response (Hong Kong Baby Doll), ’70s power pop worship (Viva Le Heartbreak and Revolver Club Stomp), and even ’80s new wave/post-punk textures (Dragon Lady). Frontman Zunisono Zhong may lean on familiar tropes (“oh yeah!” here, “wah-a-a-ooh” there), but he delivers them without irony, with the sincerity of a true rock ’n’ roll romantic. That’s what makes the songs timeless, and what makes this record The Sino Hearts’ most ambitious—and most successful—effort to date.

With Mondo Paradiso, The Sino Hearts join the upper tier of the current power pop revival, alongside The Whiffs, The Speedways, The Lemon Twigs, and Uni Boys.