The Pop Ups: Appetite For Construction, for children and beyond

Some children’s music is only for children, it’s the music that you play when you’re driving that makes you yearn for a bug to fly in your ear.  To an extent it is all about the kids being happy when they’re in the car.  The latest release from The Pop Ups firmly plants the music in your head, never lets go and is enjoyable from start to finish for many reasons.

It hooked us from the title, Appetite For Construction.  It’s a pun/homage to the classic GnR album from the 80’s.  It’s a sly joke that lets listeners in to the fact that The Pop Ups clearly have their tongue in cheek, but not in such a way that you discount the quality of the music for the sake of a good pun or lyric.

Then the first song starts, an upbeat ditty called Getting the Job Done with the lyrics “like the baker, the best bread maker and here’s the teacher he’s the alphabet preacher”.  And immediately after that some groovy harmonies kick in with the chorus and before you know it you’re 7 songs deep, tapping your fingers and moving your head back and forth.

There are 12 songs on Appetite For Construction and 9 of them are immediately great.  2 of the remaining ones grow on you and that third song is so short that it’s a non-issue.

The songs are clever, have great harmonies and feature depth that I don’t hear often in children’s music.   After a while I started listening to how each song was, pardon the pun…constructed.  There are layers upon layers of instrument tracks that make up , again, pardon the pun, that build the wall of sound that you and your children will enjoy.

The Pop Ups feel like they’ve got an 80’s soul.  From the Sonic Youth reference in ‘All These Shapes’, many of their lyrics and imagery remind us of Squeeze and Crowded House.  The subject matter of course is all oriented to things that children would do, play, dream, sleep, color, dress up and more.

The sound, at times evokes those two classic bands, but there are so many other elements, including soul and funk that The Pop Ups defy categorization, to an extent.  This is obviously music meant for children, but it is so entertaining that adults might like it more than their kids.  If there’s a problem with Appetite For Construction then that’s it-our children don’t like it as much as we do.

It’s probably a phase our kids are in.  If mom or dad like it then there is no way that we will like it.  Those kids…..   Appetite For Construction by The Pop Ups is great music for all ages.  Is it kid’s music that adults can love or lyric friendly adult music for kids?  Either way, it’s awesome.