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August 4, 2011
Its easy to despair of pop these days. And fair enough. Its because the modern visage of pop cuts an anodine and pointless look, with no substance or any genuine ingenuity, let alone the classic hooks and melodies that should really form the spine of what constitutes great pop music. Its a boring argument at this stage, I know. It also smacks of being a misanthropist or cynic, but come on, lets be straight. All of us love a bit of pop music. And thats why those of us with a bit of taste endlessly hark back to the 80’s and 90’s for our guaranteed golden gems. These days? Its just a barren wasteland of that Simon Cowell claims to fertilize, but just ends up poisoning the pop landscape with more effluent. That lass Cher Lloyd offof the telly for instance, her new heavily backed single, need I say anymore. Or any other X Factor contestant, obviously. It’s pretty depressing that one TV Show has an iron grip on the charts, an institution that genuine musicians should still really pride themselves on conquering.
However, thats all a bit negative really, isn’t it? And besides, you’ve heard it all before. The truth is, pop will always exist, and thankfully for us, if we start to think outside the box, we are going to start seeing how it still exists in some of the best stuff thats emerged this year. Most new and cutting edge music is generally acclaimed for being daring, different and refreshing. Pop, these days believe it or not, is allowed to be just the same. Little Dragon’s new album is not just an excellent musical achievement, and a consistently brilliant long player, but shows that pop can still exist in the form of a stream of innovative and electronic batch of songs.
Ritual Union showcases a band who are on top of their game in unearthing a cocophany of melodic and interesting sounds, ranging from early console samples to jazzy tinges (an influence they have maintained since their early days) and an extremely adept stranglehold on all things production. Like Dubstep producer SBTRKT, who has also broached into nouveau pop territory, Little Dragon specialise in music catered for headphones, a trailblazing example of where intricate and progressive pop is probably now headed.
The key to Little Dragon’s pop sensibilities is Yukimo Nagano’s voice. Delicate, alluring and unmistakenly gymnastic in how melodic it is, she is the perfect foil for the rest of the bands flirtation with meshing dancefloor, jazz and electronic sensibilities into accessible pop. Arguably, it is she that makes it so accessible because her voice is enchanting in its own right. However, the real strength of it is that it is such an effective glue to bring all the elements of Ritual Union together in an excellent example of not just electronic pop, but dare I say it, pop.
Oh ye of little faith. So the good stuff is actually out there. you just have to find it.
I chose Nightlight as the example from Ritual Union, but the title track is also as good, and if you give the album a whirl, I’m sure you’ll find there’s plenty more tracks of equal calibre. Give it a rinse. Better than Cher Lloyd anyway.
Even if I said, ‘Ever heard of Pugwash?’, you’re unlikely to return with an affirmative either. I’d like to think that with the success of The Duckworth Lewis Method, this would change. However, I’m still pretty sure most of you will be blissfully unaware. Walsh is indeed one half of The Duckworth Lewis Method (alongside The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon), and any acclamation or publicity the duo received for last year’s brilliant self titled cricket concept album would be long overdue praise for Walsh, who fronts Pugwash as the day job, and is in his own right a bit of a pop maestro, albeit completely unsung. He is no R-Patz, and is therefore not exactly a marketer’s dream, but this is certainly no justifiable reason for the jolly Dubliner to have been ignored by the mainstream for so long, especially considering how adept his approach to pure and classic pop is.
A purist and firm believer in what constitutes proper pop music, Walsh takes all his cues from the finest classic sources, echoing the likes of the Kinks, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra, and perhaps his biggest influence, new wave popsters XTC. Coming from this stable, Walsh is also armed with a firm but gentle voice of great range, and an ability to write hooks and melodies that truly sound out, and is a master of the catchy chorus and resonating lyric. A productively spent youth turning his garden shed into a studio also means that he leaves no stone unturned when it becomes to production techniques and values. Expect every release Walsh puts his hand to to have a massive array of instrumentation and depth in production. The Duckworth Lewis Method album is a good example, or just simply the fact he somehow pooled the resources together and managed to record a string section in Abbey Road for Pugwash album Jollity.
Whilst the success of the DLM is long overdue, this should really provide a surge of motivation for fans to go back and explore the Pugwash back catalogue, which consists of four studio albums dating back to 1999’s Almond Tea, which I think is the best, and an absolute underrated pop gem. In an era where pop music is dare I say it, demoralising, and is defined by that generic and uniform backing track Lady GaGa seems to use all the time, I think it would help any true music lover to return to the roots, and discover what the essence of a true upbeat pop record is all about. Thomas Walsh embodies this approach to both songwriting and pop music, so if you still haven’t heard of him, now is a good time to discover both him, and real pop music.
The video included above may be from Podge and Rodge, but is a great cover version by Walsh and Hannon of ELO’s classic, Mr Blue Sky, and sums up the duo’s musicianship and dab pop hand. Its just a great performance. For those wishing to discover Pugwash, the following is a link to 1999’s Almond Tea, the first and probably best example of their work. For Spotify users, a best of from the last decade, entitled ‘Giddy’, is available.
