New Young Pony Club- Fantastic Playroom

New Young Pony Club- Fantastic Playroom.

I came across this band while watching IMF( International Music Feed), a video music channel that showcases popular music from around the world, although most of the videos are from the good ole’ USA, but that’s another story. The video that seems to get heavy rotation is “Ice Cream”, their huge hit, well at least from their part of the world (England & Australia). I thought the video/music was cool, nothing great, but it got me interested. So I tracked down the band and their debut, and only album to date, Fantastic Playroom. Well to be honest while listening to this album the band is neither innovative, nor nothing outstandingly new. In fact they have this very retro sounding theme to them. If someone went in a time machine and dropped this album off somewhere in the 80’s this band would be smack dab in the middle of the New Wave scene. In fact it seems like they’re trapped in a time warp. They are labeled as Nu Wave/Rave and/or New-Disco, which may describe the 80’s love affair that is the Fantastic Playroom. With all that said the album does provide good dance music that seems to dare bubblegum but never has enough guts to go all out, which is a good thing.

Singer Tahita Bulmer isn’t particularly a good singer in terms of vocal ability, in fact she’s quite bland and seems very uninterested at first listen, but if you listen enough her vocals actually mesh well with the accompanying music. Couple that with the comforting notion that she seems to be aware of her vocal limitations, I think I’ll let her pass as a lot of not so good singers try to do too much, she doesn’t. The first song on the album, “Get Lucky” is a very catchy song, which is about getting lucky. “Recycle this if you're breaking the ban/ let your girlfriend do what your boyfriend can't”... yeah I like it, although the lyrics to the song is not exactly straight forward as these lyrics. The next song “Hiding in the Staircase in the staircase is a catchy song about feminism (or as best I can tell) “It’s the sound of revolution in the bedroom /But we know there's nothing doing/ Because we're hiding on the staircase”. Noticeable in this song is the tribal drums playing in the background, and makes me think this album is going to be very diverse. Next up is “Ice Cream” an innuendo laden dance song, littered with synthy goodness. “Drink me like a liquor, /c'mon and dip your dipper show me what you're here for, guy” This song is a really good pop song as is the closest to bubblegum this album gets. The next couple songs “The Bomb” and “Jerk Me” are both fun sex songs with “The Bomb” being the better of the two. Actually “Jerk Me” is actually a forgettable song.

The next song “The Get Go” sums up the kind of sound this band is going for, as it is a throw back to the New Wave era of the 1980’s. Unfortunately, as much I like this song, as it about the intention to get a ‘bad boy” in the sack, it starts the decline of the album for me. The other remaining songs sound like they were made one after the other, as they are all very forgettable songs. The last song, “Tight Fit” contains the lyric “I make a mold of me/ to make a mockery”, basically it’s a song about not being comfortable in your own skin and trying to find yourself. If it wasn’t the last song, I would’ve received it a little bit better, as it’s a good song standing on own, but after the downhill march for me after “ The Get Go” I felt like saying enough already.

So what do I make of this album? For a debut, I think it’s a good introduction, as in terms of letting the audience know what kind of sound you’re putting forth. But over all I think where this album and this band falls short is the same thing that makes them stand tall. Which is their sound, I am fully aware of this Nu Wave genre of music, but at times it seems like this band is trying to emulate their influences instead of taking those influences and moving forward with it to make a new sound. I don’t know maybe I’m asking too much from these guys, maybe I was listening to this album waiting for something that was never going to happen. But I can’t help but to think that songs from this album could be played at 80’s night at some hip New York City club with a bunch of late thirty and early forty year olds saying to each other, “I don’t remember this song do you?” With one saying in response “I think so, but I’m not sure”. That pretty much sums up the New Young Pony Club in a nut shell.

Fantastic Playroom- 7/10.