POP ETC – POP ETC
Poppy, glitchy and bouncing, the self-titled album from Pop Etc might work if we’re still in the eighties and could look past the lacing of autotune. Surrounded by swirling synthesisers, elastic beats and fun lyrics, the album is filled with a vibrant and youthful energy. But with so many elements mixing in the same way each track, they work hard to be defined form one another. Like a Passion Pit album without the helium vocals and depth of character, most of Pop Etc’s songs offer up a big clanking sound. The first track, New Life, teases with a slow long entrance of dripping keys combined with a tapping RnB beat. However, we are unrewarded for our patience – the reverberating distortion of the vocals is like an aural representation of a windows media player visualisation. Keep It For Your Own might be considered a more ‘subdued’ track, laying down an acoustic guitar underneath a synthetic beat and what morphs into screeching synth. With an explosive kit entry and powerful synth chords, Back to Your Heart is much more fitting to Pop Etc’s elements, despite the boy-band title. Sadly, it is only the autotune which distinguishes this track from one off a Greatest Hits of the 80s compilation CD. Originally formed in Berkley, California, the band chanced their name earlier this year after realising their previous title, The Morning Benders, was inappropriate for its possible offensive homophobic connotations. Leaving behind their earlier guitar-based pop, Pop Etc have swallowed up the 80s and regurgitated them into bombastic, inconsequential sound. **
