Customer Reviews

Optimist

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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NYPC's first album was certainly infectious dance pop and, at times, found itself dancing in circles. But it's best moments were realized to stunning effect on their eagerly awaited follow-up. The Optimist is more mature, more stylish, and more fun (if you can believe that one).

I say mature because, especially in tracks like The Optimist and Dolls, this album sounds like a well-honed response to the attention brought by Fantastic Playroom. Considering The Optimist was self-produced and self-released, I think NYPC achieved what they were hoping for by taking more control.

I say stylish because this album varies so well from track to track without losing cohesion. Each track is built around the absolutely solid, New Order-like basslines that are always prominent in the mix; low, rumbling, bouncy... and Tahita Bulmer's sung-spoken vocals with their detached quality that alternates between introspective and in your face and can be compared to, yes, Siouxsie Sioux ("Before The Light" and "Oh Cherie" are perfect examples of both). And in between we have wonderful flourishes of piano and keyboard, drum machine intricacies, multitracked vocal bits or additional vocalists....if you get to "Rapture," track nine, and you aren't enraptured..give it another spin, this time louder. "Oh Cherie" is our climax here, "Rapture" our denouement. I promise you they promised this.

I say more fun because there's just so much going on here in addition to the immediate catchiness of what we'd expect from the group. The first two tracks draw you in to much of what you want to hear while track three, the title track, tells you just what they want you to hear.

If I draw any similarity it's not to The Pretenders or PJ Harvey, but to masterpieces of moody-manic dance pop like The Cure's "The Walk" EP from 1983 or Roxy Music's edgy disco album "Manifesto" from 1979, both being examples of bands who won the public's love and then deciding to try something new. Both offerings that were a fist and a finesse.

Up until the release of this album, I had only dabbled in New Young Pony Club. I considered most of their work boring, cheesy, and even unlistenable, with small pockets of fun and creativity. I now find myself eating my words, both surprised and proud to report that I am absolutely infatuated by the seductive sound of NYPC's "The Optimist".

Our journey begins with "Lost a Girl", full of energy, singable, and provoking, these first four minutes are a teasing appetizer that sends a clear message: "We're really good, we know it, stick around for the main course and we'll blow you away!"

This is followed by "Chaos", the album's only single, which just happens to be one of the weaker tracks. It's clearly intended for old NYPC fans, giving them one last taste of the sound to which they've grown accustomed.

All great bands mature, and track 3, the eponymously titled "The Optimist" is the band's testament that they are more than capable of reinventing and refining their sound. "The Optimist" is so good it's scary, starting out deep and slow, the song tantalizes as it builds and falls, climaxing with the piercing call of the Sirens themselves. Prediction: in 2008 I forecasted that MGMT would take off because of "Kids" and in 2009 I said the same of Phoenix's "1901", I was right on both counts. For 2010, I'm placing all my chips on New Young Pony Club's "The Optimist". This track and the solid album that surrounds it will make New Young Pony Club the most hyped band of 2011; you heard it here first.

The fourth track is "Stone", a mellow song that allows the listener to catch her breath after the orgasmic "The Optimist", preparing us for a second wind. It's a good thing too, because the follow up "We Want To" gives us a sumptuous taste of everything that was right with "The Bomb" while also borrowing (apparently) from the Wizard of Oz's "Winkie Chant". Moving forward, "Dolls", "Before the Light", "Oh Cherie" and "Rapture" are all solid tracks that almost seem forgettable, until it dawns on you that your subconscious is still humming and singing them days later.

The album closes with "Architect of Love", it's haunting, it's pulsing, and it effectively incorporates heavy cowbell and chainsaws like no song you've ever heard. Most importantly, "Architect of Love" provides the perfect transition as one returns to track 1; ergo, rinse and repeat, this album exemplifies recapitulation through repetition.

I love this record - every track is outstanding in its own right. Yes, it's a trip of sorts down memory lane. At times I can hear Souxsie's voice, the Go Gos' harmonies, Joy Division's discordance (and that alone makes it worth the purchase price), Clan of Xymox's haunting danceability, and many other nods to my favorite bands and sounds. These influences, NYPC's unique processing & interpretation of them, in concert with NYPC's modern sensibilities and daring musicianship (no guitar? ha!), make for an ultra fine, unique, listenable, stellar record. I haven't liked an album in its entirety this much in a long, long time.