Name: Birthday
Brand: Pom Poko

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

BELLA846CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-02-22

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Orchard

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5400863000202

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

BELLA846LP

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5400863000196

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Pom Poko

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Bella Union

Pom Poko release their debut album, Birthday, via Bella Union. Between the quartet’s sweetly punky melodies and disco-fried art-rock eruptions, a spirit of free-firing, balls-out individuality courses through this exhilarating debut. The band’s own bad-ass-ery is writ large on album opener Theme1, which locates a sweet spot between Deerhoof and Battles as singer Ragnhild issues loud, clear rebel yells over Martin’s math-rock guitar. Singles My Blood and Follow The Lights layer seductively sweet melodies over squalls of sound, while the funk-fired My Work Is Full of Art offers a kind of mission statement: “I’ll just let freaky surround me,” sings Fangel.

Elsewhere, Pom Poko’s instinctive dynamism teases uplifting thrills from boundary-melting experiments. Glacial shards of guitar bounce off steel-drum flurries on the rapid-fire serotonin fix of Blue, before the sweetly infatuated Honey comes sequenced next to the thrashing tonal lurches of Crazy Energy Night. The sing-song title-track spikes the ranks of sweetly sad birthday songs with a rebellious sting (“I’m not your bitch!”), while Daytripper is a commanding come-on from a band who are no more likely to mince their words than limit their range. If U Want Me 2 Stay resembles The Tra La La Song retooled as a sci-fi cyber-pop anthem of carefree defiance, while Peachy closes the album with an exultant melody and one last declaration of transformative independence: “Watch me as I shape shift.”

Birthday

Music US