“Oh, come on, let’s get started, just don’t leave me broken-hearted! Oh, come on, let’s get started!”

This is the infectious hook of the first song off Dylan Gardner’s debut album, “Adventures in Real Time” and it had been stuck in my head since the moment I heard it.

Gardner, of YouTube fame, is a multi-instrumentalist and a songwriter, and, according to his website, a self-proclaimed “music nerd” who collects classic rock albums and can play every song that Ben Folds ever wrote. A Chicagoland native, this 18-year-old from Aurora, Ill. was signed to Warner Bros. Records in August of last year.

His music, infused with the infectious pop rock sound that has been sweeping the radio as of late, perfect for summer driving with the windows down. It has evidence of his classic rock influences in subtle, catchy guitar riffs and the thick, five-piece rock band layering that is characteristic of the genre.

The first song, “Let’s Get Started” was stuck in my head from the moment I heard it, and I could already imagine myself driving this summer with the windows down and the song playing at full-blast from the speakers of my mom’s minivan (the perfect picture of a Midwestern teenager).

The music seems to draw heavily from pop music that’s on the radio today, with bands like American Authors and Neon Trees finding radio popularity with songs that harken back to the golden age of rock-and-roll, as well as some bits and pieces from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, whether it’s the specific tone of the guitar or the quiet licks that are played with distortion that was highly popular with classic rock bands.

I hear a lot of music like this on the radio now, as I said before, and I love the genre that’s taking over the airwaves past all of the heavily electronic pop music that’s been popular in the past decade. What can I say? I’m a rock purist–or “rockist,” as some like to say–at heart.

That being said, this style of music isn’t anything particularly fresh or exciting. It follows the formula, mixing a tom-heavy backbeat with a catchy vocal hook and soft guitar riffs layered into the middle of the music, as if it was the filling to a sandwich.

Tasty. Familiar.

As I listened to the rest of the album, all the songs started to sound the same to me, and while I appreciate that he has a particular style and that he’s sticking to it, I wish that there was more variation on the album. I loved the first song, liked the third one, and by the fifth one it all started to blend together.

That isn’t to say that the album is bad. Holistically, it’s very good–it has lyrics that are relatable, and beats that stick in the mind, chord progressions that are aurally pleasing and vocal hooks that anyone can appreciate. It’s exactly the type of music that will shoot to the top of the charts once the general public catches a whiff of it.

That’s why I’m going to leave you with this: remember the name Dylan Gardner and wait a few months. This summer, his track is going to explode onto the scene, and (for all you hipsters out there) we can say we heard him first.