{"id":3075,"date":"2012-09-20T05:14:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T09:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3075"},"modified":"2012-09-20T05:14:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T09:14:51","slug":"album-review-the-poster-boy-melody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/20\/album-review-the-poster-boy-melody\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Poster Boy – Melody"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the many fascinating discoveries one finds when diving into the sprawling 4CD set Nuggets, Vol. 2: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond<\/em> is in the \u201cbeyond\u201d part. Everybody knows what British pop music of that sounds like (even though it’s a wonderfully varied lot), but it’s the selections from the other countries in which the real gems lie. The Mops<\/strong>‘ delightfully cracked \u201cI’m Just a Mops\u201d from Japan; Los Chijuas<\/strong>‘ \u201cChanging the Colors of Life\u201d from Mexico; and Sweden’s Tages<\/strong>, whose \u201cI Read You Like an Open Book\u201d mixes Who<\/strong>-like punch with a dash of proto-prog and a winning accessibility to rival ABBA<\/strong> \u2013 these are just a few of the fascinating discoveries.<\/p>\n

And what makes them so interesting is the way that the bands took forms familiar to us in North America and the UK, and then applied \u2013 deliberately or organically; it really doesn’t matter \u2013 their own local flavor. It’s similar to what the Beatles<\/strong> and other British groups did in assimilating American rock, girl-group sounds and r&b though their own filters, and then giving it back to us in a way that truly was fresh and new.<\/p>\n

But of course<\/em> that would happen, you’re thinking. Of course: musicians in a given country or culture would bring a different sensibility to a pop style, even if they didn’t mean to do so. Right?<\/p>\n

Up until now, I’d say yes. When, in the early 1990s, Japan’s Flying Elephants<\/strong> tried to make music in the style of The Beatles, it came out sounding, well, like a Japanese Beatles (as opposed to Japanese beetles; sorry). Conversely, a decade earlier when Charlotte North Carolina’s Spongetones<\/strong> set out to do the same thing with their<\/em> orignal songs, the results sounded like great outtakes from Something New<\/em> and Revolver<\/em>. For them, it worked.<\/p>\n

Which, finally, brings me to the exception that just might prove the rule. A trio based in Budapest, Hungary called The Poster Boy<\/strong> has released Melody<\/em>, a pop album the classic American\/British pop mold. While the drummer and lyricist (Michael Zwecker<\/strong>) is an American, the dual front men (as described in the press release accompanying my review copy of Melody<\/em>) are Imre Poniklo<\/strong> and Noel R. Mayer<\/strong>, both Hungarians. The latter two do the singing, but listening to Melody<\/em>, one wold never suspect that the band wasn’t from somewhere in America’s heartland. Or England. Or at least L.A.<\/p>\n

The title track on Melody<\/em> features chiming Rickenbacker tones, and gentle, dual-lead harmony vocals that recall The Searchers<\/strong>, The La’s<\/strong> or Belle and Sebastian<\/strong>; it’s a transcendentally beautiful song worthy of its title (though it is, in the fine pop tradition, about a girl). It’s so<\/em> damn good, in fact, that if Melody<\/em> were a one-sided single, you’d need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPale Blue Eyes\u201d is an original tune, not the Velvet Underground<\/strong> song. It’s an insistent yet plaintive and melancholy number. While the rhythm guitar and snare propel the song forward hypnotically, the bass shifts subtly under them; it’s almost dream-pop, but with a higher melodic quotient. \u201cPortland Head Light\u201d kicks off sounding like a lo-fi rethinking of T. Rex<\/strong>, but then it explodes into a joyous pop extravaganza.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraction\u201d mines the style of The La’s again, but speeds things up and adds in a modern slant; even with the handclaps, it’s a timeless-sounding number. \u201cIt’s Over\u201d is featured twice on Melody<\/em>; the first version starts with a sultry, sexy ballad, weds a Small Faces<\/strong> approach to it, and applies female vocal choruses. The result is a modern take on Northern Soul. The outro features some truly soulful Memphis-styled horn work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce\u201d evokes the Summer of Love, British-style, right down to the piano chording and la-la-la backing vocals. It could easily be a long-lost World Party<\/strong> track, but instead it’s merely another in the broken string of lovely pop songs on Melody<\/em>. \u201cOnly a Test\u201d is a departure, starting with an exotic and vaguely Eastern feel; it unfolds into an alternately yearning\/rocking song reminiscent of Crowded House<\/strong> circa Together Alone<\/em>. The lovely, brief \u201cDiffraction\u201d is the sole cut on Melody<\/em> built around an acoustic guitar. The album closes with an alternate mix of \u201cIt’s Over,\u201d featuring Viki Singh<\/strong> on lead vocals. Her voice wrings even more emotion out of the tune. It’s not fair to compare the two versions; you need both.<\/p>\n

Melody<\/em> is immediately short-listed for Musoscribe’s Best Album of 2012. Check back in late December.<\/p>\n

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\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the many fascinating discoveries one finds when diving into the sprawling 4CD set Nuggets, Vol. 2: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond is in the \u201cbeyond\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}