Being an up-and-coming musician is tough. You not only are fighting to get your name recognized in a sea of artists and product, but you’re also constantly compared to others who have gone before you, while trying to create a unique sound for yourself.
For the Brooklyn, New York-based duo Power Pose, there are bound to be comparisons to such acts as Veruca Salt and Belly when one hears their debut effort I’m Looking. But while there is promise among the 31 minutes of music, a lackluster production and mixing job ends up hurting their overall cause.
The duo—guitarist/vocalist Jacqueline Bodley and drummer Kelly Rudman—is supposed to be a group espousing feminism and inner strength, especially with the state of the world circa 2022 (though these songs were written before such actions as the reversal of Roe v. Wade). And, when Bodley’s vocals can be heard over the mix and without layered distortion, they are powerful. But more often than not, the vocals are forced to take a back seat to the music.
It’s not that the music is weak; tracks such as “Cat Person” and the title track have plenty of power to suggest that Power Pose is definitely on the right path. But there are messages in many of the songs, and when the distortion level is turned up on the vocals while the volume is turned down, as is the case on the leadoff track “Honey,” any message they may have wanted to deliver would require a printed lyric sheet to get the point across.
All of that said, it is amazing and refreshing to hear such layered musicianship coming from a duo; if one didn’t have the album or the group’s biography in front of them, it would be easy to assume this album was made by a larger group.
If there was anything I’d have wanted from I’m Looking (aside from more attention paid to the vocal mixing), it would have been more material. It’s difficult to call seven songs a full-length album by any means, and I’d like to have heard what else Bodley and Rudman had come up with in their five years together as a group. Still, it’s a good, if tentative, first step.
Perhaps had the production been stronger on this one, I’m Looking would have been a more powerful first statement from Power Pose. As it is, it is flawed, but there’s enough I’m hearing to keep me interested in where they go from here… and, if my instincts are correct, it could be a very interesting trip they take the listener on in the future.
