POP ETC – “POP ETC”
By George Raphael, on 06 Jun 13, 2012
Yesterday, the album we’ve been talking so much about, POP ETC‘s re-debut LP, was released to the world. This is an exciting time for the band that are just now emerging from their previous identity as the morning benders. I see it as a sort of coming out for the band. They’ve been hiding this side of them for years: this immensely pop-soaked, synth-drowned, swimmingly smiling bouncy indie pop. Now, finally, shedding their old skin and a good amount of their fans in the indie rock community, Chris Chu and POP ETC release the next, and possibly the most honest, chapter in their musical catalog.
And so, the aptly titled “New Life.”
POP ETC‘s new album starts off with a song that rattles my floor and the lowest note threatens to crack the wood in my desk. “New Life” indeed. The song is instantly reminiscent of chillwave, with a chorus sporting a super soft R&B melody that sounds straight plucked out of 1992, blended with both sharp sawtooth and glittering, lo-fi pad synths and distant, reverberated harmonies. A perfect song to start the album with because it’s instantly different from anything they’ve ever made, and it’s goddamn beautiful.
Then, after that beautiful introduction, we are directly transported into the true world of POP ETC with “Back To Your Heart“:
Without a guitar in sight, POP ETC unapologetically pummels us with a bubbly lead, 1-2 count electric drum beats, auto-tuned vocals, and overflowing, huge 80′s-inspired synths. Big Echo is immediately and obviously in the past. Chris Chu‘s familiar voice now dances around simpler melodies and subtly heavy-hearted lyrics disguised as bubble gum. The song never takes a break, and encourages you to bounce and hop with them. Visions of a strobe light-soaked, sweaty, dancing crowd instantly come to mind. You’ve got to hand it to the boys, they are masters of their craft, no matter what the craft is. This song is a delight.
“Halfway To Heaven” is one of the weaker spots on the album, but still a treat. The production is excellent, and POP ETC did a great job of blending real, thumping drums and light, bopping bass guitar with their new poppy synth-soaked sound. The “ba-da-dum-bum-bum” vocals remind me of “Promises” from Big Echo, and the way they transport the song back and forth from indie rock and a more traditional pop/R&B sound is genius, especially the break right before the unavoidably air-drum-in-your-car fill before the end of the song.
Right here on the album is the perfect place to lighten up a bit with the new, gigantic POP ETC sound, and that’s exactly what they do.
POP ETC – Keep It for Your Own
Anyone appalled by the departure of the morning benders, please see “Keep It For Your Own.” This song really lets the boys’ roots shine through. Is that an acoustic guitar we hear? A super present bass guitar in the mix? It should come as no surprise that this track was produced by Danger Mouse during the New York City sessions of the recording process. The light, airy, and constant drum machine lays a great foundation for a more traditional indie rock piece. With the most delicate lyrics on the album, Chris Chu laments a song that I took as protecting yourself during the search for love, sometimes “bending the rules till they broke,” somewhere we’ve all been at one point or another. A smart move making this the single off the album, as it’s sure to hold on to as many fans as it should generate.
We’ve seen the video for the next song “Live It Up” more than a few times, but listening to it without Chris Chu heart-throbbing in your face is a different experience:
I feel like this song alongside the three I’ve already posted fully represent all the faces of this album. “Live It Up” is a classic example of modern R&B. The strange chords on the keyboard sampled into a vaguely dissonant and pretty pattern, and Mr. Chu singing about his “main chick back at home” and how he makes a “lover town after town,” but if “the bus rolls up, [ he's] gotta go.” It’s almost silly hearing the band in this form, but the real drums blended in with the samples and the distant “aahs” in the chorus reflect back on the sounds heard earlier in the record, making this song truly unique. The blend of chillwave, indie rock, Top 40 pop, and modern R&B heard here, to me, is the essence of this record.
Side A is wrapped up with “Everything Is Gone,” a song undoubtedly influenced by the bands’ admitted love for Nas; a song that’s pounding bass and piano will make you bop uncontrollably, while the sharp, atmospheric lead synth will haunt your whistles for days.
At this point in the record, we are fully immersed and familiar with the new POP ETC. This means that this next side of the record is going to be the fun side. If you’ve listened this far, you’ve decided to trust them, so sit back and let them Rock Your Body with “R.Y.B.” A truly interesting song, because on the surface, this is just another “let’s go out and dance tonight” bubble gum pop song. Though, if you listen to the lyrics, they’re actually kind of dark (talking about the world ending and “the floods rising up“), and Chu states “Don’t try to pick this apart, I know where I stand.” That gives a new depth to this song, and allows you to listen to the arrangement instead of dismissing it. It’s full of a slamming drum kit, and even some piano playing jazz chords that make it sound simultaneously Big Echo and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”
The rest of the album slowly takes you by the hand with “Why’d You Do It Honey” and leads you to the stairwell of the imaginary dance hall that this album is absolutely taking place in, and serenades you with “I Wanna Be Your Man.” POP ETC shows the indie kids that they shouldn’t write them off so quick, with the end of the song slowly morphing from a hypnotizing chillwave groove into a thick, all-out sonic rock explosion. Layer after layer of sound is piled up while you sit there watching and cringing, worried that the foundation’s going to give out and collapse. Oh, and then it does.
The explosion at the end of the song moves into “C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E,” a nice, groovy pop ballad reminiscent of the “All Day Day Light” staccato synth stabs. We can all relate to “One day it’s love, and one day it’s hate / We can’t communicate / One day it’s love, and the next a mistake.” That line rings true throughout the song, and acts as a nice segway into arguably the catchiest song on the entire album. From the very first second, “Yoyo” instantly transports you to 1986. The chorus of “You got the kind of lovin’ that’s got me comin’ back just like a yo-yo” indeed keeps me coming back. POP ETC provide you with a superb finale that celebrates the impenitent pop that is their new sound. The soundtrack to the part of the dance at the end of the night, after everyone’s already cuddled with their sweethearts, where everyone’s bowties are swinging sloppily on top of their unbuttoned shirts and the entire floor is bouncing in synchrony.
POP ETC‘s new album deserves a title of nothing less than a debut. This is definitely not the morning benders; from the first second of the record that’s unavoidably apparent. It takes a lot of guts to completely reform yourself as a group, and when you do it as flawlessly as these guys did, it warrants nothing but respect. POP ETC‘s unforgiving glassy pop is juxtaposed by solid, hefty instrumentation and arrangements. The entire album is a party, the good kind where all your old friends are there and you sneak off and have intimate and personal moments with the people you love the most. POP ETC‘s new album is a celebration of their new sound, with an open invitation for everyone to let their hair down and partake.
