Great Pretenders Club by The Pop Ups is lush, power pop, pretend kindie

The problem with a great piece of work is that it has to be followed with something else. Audiences will expect-and want it to be as good as the previous work, but it rarely is. Witness the curse of Every Other James Bond Film for one example. I was expecting the new release from The Pop Ups in the mail and was giddy with anticipation when I opened it. About a minute into Great Pretenders Club I hit skip, then I skipped through every song and didn’t play it again until the kids got in the car.

I don’t like to go back to Rockville, but it’s important to point out that Appetite For Construction, the previous release by The Pop Ups was almost perfect. My wife and I would listen to it endlessly in the car with the kids. Almost every song on that release was a perfect nugget of kindie pop magic. Imagine that Squeeze had taken their lyrics down to something that a child would relate to; keep the music as layered, tight and rhythmic.

It was a high bar that we were measuring against for sure. However, as much as my wife and I loved that release, our children never requested any of the songs from it.

So I put Great Pretenders Club in again, fast forwarding past the first song, Pretend We Forgot. That song is more of an ‘intro’ than a song for us. It’s far too soft and dreamy. Even against the rest of the songs it makes us dizzy-and not in the way that it was intended.

After a couple of listens though the songs started to make sense and what’s more, the kids love the songs and consistently ask for a couple of them. Starting with the second song, We Live In An Orchestra The Pop Ups start to get their mojo back. It’s a song that inspires kids to find the music in the everyday things around us, hence the title. It also has a framework of the easily accessible kindie pop that we fell in love with.

From there the disc picks up with each song. By Indoor Picnic and Animal Birthday Party the level of the songs for the kids and adults are really enjoyable. Bird & Rhino and Make a Rainbow are by far our children’s favorites. They are less of a pop song and more of an audio play between two characters.

Adults who like the psychedelic elements of The Beatles and Pink Floyd will get lost in Make a Rainbow. It’s a trippy song about collecting things around the house to combine the different colors that make a rainbow.  This is more about the atmosphere than the song. Call it an upbeat kindie shoegazer tour de force with an introduction and narration by a monster.

The song that is most like a pop nugget is Treasure Hunter. It has the grand orchestral elements that make Rainbow big, but also concentrates on kindie power pop.

Great Pretenders Club is a concept album of sorts that is all about children using their imagination to play. Some of the songs on the release are more power popish, while others seem to let children use their imagination to a higher level. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but I was surprised at home much our kids loved this release. I still skip past the first song, but the remaining songs will go on auto play until the kids request number 6 and 10.

Even more, I’ve grown to like it as much as Appetite for Construction. Great Pretenders Club is not as immediately catchy as its predecessor, however it is as good. It gets off to a hazy start, but once it gets going it’ll set the bar even higher for the next release from The Pop Ups.