Future Future Future Perfect - Freezepop

Sweet

I love this album. Honestly I haven't much cared for the other freezepop offerings, but this is a great album.

Good guys give into the dark side...

Freezepop's normally a good group, but this is one of their worst albums to purchase? Why? Because RIAA got their slimy hands into this particular album. (As I do in all my recent music reviews, I suggest checking out all your music on riaaradar.com. After all, smart music shoppers avoid RIAA like the plague... because that's what it is.)

get Fancy Ultra Fresh if you want tasty licks from the past...get this one if you're ready for the future.

Freezepop's "we're growing up...but not all the way" album. Some old-school fans may complain that it's not jammed full of peppy poppy cartoon ditties like their earlier albums, however in terms of production, continuity, and variety, this is probably the best Freezepop album yet. Liz Enthusiasm, who previously delivered every song in doe-eyed monotone is now pushing her vocals harder in songs like "Frontload" and "Brainpower", the latter being a song about an ill-chosen band name. The album wraps up on a downbeat tone, with an ominous Moroder-like riff and a tale of stolen styling gel.

Though the album is docked a star here for being less than pefect due to the inclusion of "Do You Like My Wang", there's a 5-star import version of this album available elsewhere with "Wang" replaced by "Get Drunk With Milk", "I Think Best In Wire" and "Smoke Machine(storslagen mix)". Nab that one.

Similar to the direction taken by desperate-but-not-serious synthpoppers Joy Electric, Hyperbubble, and Femme Fatality, "Future Future Future Perfect" concentrates on keeping things on the upbeat, while taking the occasional peek into the darkness. Don't worry though, with Freezepop at the controls, the future looks bright.

I like it, but it's not what I expected

I definitely like this album, don't get me wrong. And I like the opening track (see all the other reviews if you don't know what I mean), but some of the other reviews are dead-on: it's not what I was expecting, coming from Fancy Ultra Fresh and Freezepop Forever.

But it's good, and I recommend it, just be aware that it's not quite the same.

Songs like Frontload and Thought Balloon are awesome, and evidence that this band is still growing and evolving. But songs like Do You Like My Wang? and Do You Like Boys (which sounds eerily like the theme song to David the Gnome) show that they're still enough of the same so that fans of the previous albums will like this one.

Ultimately, the biggest difference, and the most obvious influence, is the surprising ubiquity of guitar riffs, from games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Less Talk More Rokk is arguably one of the best songs on the album (the other being Frontload), but it's a stylistic departure from the old bleeps and bloops, and if you're looking for something like artsy synth pop, this album may not be enough for you.

Truth in Advertising

"Science Genius Girl" served notice ~ Liz Enthusiasm is from Planet Claire ~ and, low-calorie as robot lovers and 'rocking out' ditties were, she frequently evinced a charming beatnik beam. Like, "Plastic Stars," "Freezepop Forever," "Stakeout" and "Bike Thief." Look out, Laurie Anderson. Ms PacMan vocals, sardonic banalities (Cibo Mato), Radio Shack electronics (Zsa Zsa 7), Rodd Keith miniatures with teflon lyrics. Kraftwerk > dad + Bow Wow Wow > mom = presto: "Brain Power". Freezepop is one more transmission away from the next big Pop Shop Boys ("Do You Like Boys?"). Not just Devo bubblegum: "Thought Balloon" aces Kate Bush; "He Says She Says" documents eroding relationship w/ a Karn Evil 9 coda; "Swimming Pool," with Enoesque grandeur, soars above haiku.

"Guilty pleasures feel so right." Enchanted ever after.

I got divested of all my iPod downloads prior to joining Twin Oaks, zap went all my sulky divorce operas, musing mid-life soundtracks, liquidated by Mister Clean ... and now it's strictly neo new sounds, barcodes with a beat, digital epiphanies, happy squiggles, sunny squelch, jingles and ringtones. Lotus scored the beat and Sparkle hipped me the buzz; thanks for the antenna. The fragility of data, my future rerouted. Goodbye Joni Mitchell, therapy music, now I've got Freezepop, prozak splice. After all, I've lost a lot more on the road to Solla Sollew. It happened on my ex's 40th birthday, no less. I raise my radio ears to the new bump n' grind; music as matter-of-fact as a menu ~ day-glo forever. This stuff's gonna make killer EZ listening, too.

Pocket symphonies for (google) gurls.

UPDATE. I emailed Liz Enthusiam and she was kind enough to answer some interview questions. Here goes.

1. What were your irst pop songs heard on radio (or seen on MTV). First pop record ever purchased (the more embarrassing the better)?

LE: The earliest songs I remember on the radio were "Jive Talking" by the Bee Gees and that Steve Miller song about Flying Like an Eagle, which gave me the creeps. The first album I ever purchased was Seven and the Ragged Tiger, which I am still psyched about.


2. Outfits you've been wearing this week. (Colors, patterns, used/new, labels).

LE: Unsurprisingly, lots of pink and grey and black. Go figure. A mixture of new and vintage stuff.


3. Songwriting process. Riffs first, lyrics last? In pieces, or work together in real time?

LE: Generally, I write lyrics and then hand them off to the boys to do something with them. Sometimes the boys collaborate, but not always.


4. Any plans to use chamberlain or mellotron?

LE: Not that I'm aware of, but you never know. That's really the boys' department.


5. What's for dinner tonight?

LE: Probably something Mexican, I did just buy a whole thing of cilantro.


Just like the Teen Beet!