StonerPop - Self titled
Electro pop often takes an unbalanced
approach. The artists in the genre frequently place more importance on their
keyboards and synthesizers and reduce the important role vocals and lyrics can
play to something akin to an afterthought tacked on for consumers. StonerPop
doesn’t follow this logic. The five songs on their debut EP aim to provide
listeners with an involving musical and lyrical experience. Vocalist and
co-songwriter Maudie Michelle gives her audience a variety of “looks” over the
course of her four singing performances and the different poses she strikes
never ring false. She proves herself quite capable of holding up her end of
each cut she’s featured on. Her artistic cohort Jimmie Maneuva contributes
occasional vocals, but his musical arrangements are crucial for giving Michelle
an attention holding platform for her to stretch her talents.
She keeps her vocal presence on the
first song “Preachers” every bit as understated as her musical accompaniment.
There’s a lot of space in a song like this and some passages literally drop out
of nowhere, with little preamble, exert their influence over the song, then
disappear just as quickly. It isn’t an arbitrary thing, however. It becomes
apparent rather quickly that there is a definable structure to the song that’s
quite inventive, referencing the familiar while still delivering the
unexpected. The duo dials the intensity up a few notches on the second song
“Running”. Maneuva’s musical contributions invoke the song title artfully and
there’s just the right amount of post production effects to give this a
pleasing theatrical turn. The song is a little more packed with musical action
than the opener, but StonerPop shows off here the same talent for orchestrating
the elements of electro pop in mature, artistically useful ways. “You’re Never
Listening (Get Over Yourself)” has a lot of the attitude detectable in its
title, but StonerPop is never obvious about it. They opt, instead, for giving
shape to those emotions with sharply defined synth lines and the right amount
of ambient sound effects to hang omnipresent over the audience. This song and
the one preceding are, far and away, the most intense musical turns StonerPop
take on the EP and reflect their songwriting at its most challenging thus far.
They finish their debut up with much
more optimistic, cheerful fare. “Monsters” has a rather dramatic lyric
exploring childhood memories and other themes, but it is a much more elegiac
and approachable song musically than its lyrics would suggest. Michelle
definitely gives listeners her most impassioned vocal performance yet, but it
isn’t any sort of hollow pyrotechnic display – the most satisfying thing about
her singing on this track is the obvious attention she pays to every line. The
final song “Fox” has an even more pronounced commercial edge, but it never
quite crosses over thanks to the sometimes fragmented nature of StonerPop’s
often lovely melodies. They do what any great musical unit should do – filter
their influences through their own personalities and create stylistically
distinctive work that no one will mistake for anyone else. StonerPop have
accomplished that five songs into their career and can now start work on
expanding the scope of their achievement even further.
9 out of 10 stars
Joshua Stryde
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