\u201cIf you haven\u2019t noticed yet \/ We\u2019re the prettiest girls you\u2019ve ever met.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s what The Pipettes tell you on their debut album\u2019s title track. They are pretty, but they also know how to make wonderful pop music. <\/p>\n
Not without a lot of help, though. In addition to the three leading ladies on vocals (RiotBecki, Gwenno, and Rosay), you\u2019ll hear the bright instrumentation of The Cassette, led by the guitarist\/mastermind of The Pipettes, Monster Bobby. You\u2019ll hear retro string and horn arrangements. And you\u2019ll hear production that takes more than a hint from Phil Spector\u2019s Wall Of Sound technique. <\/p>\n
The English pop group has admitted their music is manufactured and experimental (of course, a pipette is an instrument you would find in a laboratory). But they themselves are the designers of their image, style, and sound. They have a mission of sorts, as RiotBecki told British publication The Observer<\/i>, \u201cI\u2019d like to think we are a refreshing alternative to the bland standardized hegemony of cock-rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost every track on We Are The Pipettes<\/i> could be a single. Many of them were released as such, including \u201cJudy,\u201d my introduction to the group. Rosay is the lead vocalist on the song, her voice a concoction of pleasant memory and present sadness: \u201cJudy \/ Whatcha gonna do \/ \u00a0When you\u2019re older \/ And no one wants to know ya?\u201d The chorus is a story you may hear in your head while doing anything, and it\u2019s hard not saying the words yourself, the mark of a solid pop song.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
But \u201cJudy\u201d isn\u2019t indicative of the album\u2019s overall tone (though \u201cTell Me What You Want\u201d has a similar verse musically). The majority of the songs are lighthearted and often hilarious. For example, \u201cOne Night Stand\u201d is the rejection of a sensitive man after a night of careless sex: \u201cI don\u2019t love you \/ If you think that this is cruel \/ Then you should see what my friends do!\u201d Another popular theme is dancing, with the single \u201cPull Shapes\u201d — a British phrase for dancing — being the most persuasive and fun for a person like me who has little interest in the dance floor. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the energy of \u201cPull Shapes\u201d and humor of \u201cSex\u201d and \u201cABC\u201d make tracks like \u201cI Love You\u201d somewhat mundane, but they are listenable. Another serious song, \u201cWinter Sky,\u201d overcomes its heavier tone by enveloping you in a wave of beautiful voices. Yes, the album is a collective effort, but the vocals are the selling point every time. <\/p>\n
On this American release, two tracks were added to the end of the record: \u201cDance And Boogie\u201d and \u201cBaby, Just Be Yourself.\u201d The former is undoubtedly the most modern track, featuring a cool New Wave element with its keyboard line. \u201cBaby, Just Be Yourself,\u201d the sweetest song from the shrewd trio, sends the album back into the past for its finale. (The American release also features a yellow album cover with the three women standing well above city buildings like three female King Kong superhumans.)<\/p>\n
We Are The Pipettes <\/i>is 35 minutes of splendid music. Just when I think it can\u2019t hook me anymore, I end up listening to just one more track, just one more track, just one more track. The only bummer here is the knowledge that two of The Pipettes, RiotBecki and Rosay, left the group this year for other projects. Anna and Ani, Gwenno\u2019s sister, are their replacements. Hopefully the new lineup can pull shapes as well as this one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":29593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8292],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41189","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-pipettes","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41189"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41189"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}