User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
- Summary: This is the latest release for the New Zealand rock band.
- Record Label: Merge
- Genre(s): Indie, Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 4 out of 10
-
Mixed: 6 out of 10
-
Negative: 0 out of 10
-
The band’s latest, Mister Pop, won’t surprise Clean-ologists; it’s another set of textured, droney guitar-pop, often too ethereal and repetitive to linger long after the fade-out.
-
Mister Pop stays the course for the rest of its relatively compact 10-song, 34-minute length, reshaping the Clean's core components into poignant bossa nova instrumentals ('Simple Fix'), propulsive Krautrock-outs ('Tensile') and, as only they can, bizarro fuzz-organ jigs that resemble White Light/White Heat-era Velvets auditioning for "Riverdance" ('Moonjumper').
-
Apart from these standout tracks, it's a solid album that shows off the individual members' songwriting skills and holds together very well as a display of smart and savvy modern pop.
-
MojoMister Pop is at once an old friend and a stotal stranger. [Nov 2009, p.100]
-
Mister Pop doesn’t quite measure up even to the first few Clean records from their third return (Modern Rock is an overlooked gem); it feels a bit haphazard at times, the instrumentals don’t need to be there, and Robert Scott’s song isn’t as potent as usual.
-
Sure, Mister Pop might be of interest to fanboys and a few others, but it makes a less convincing case for why new listeners should care about these guys.
-
How these twee-approved embellishments help the record are hard to prove, seeing as none of them give it the edge it sorely needs. Yet, in the least, the gentle sighs render Mister Pop as intermittently pretty as it is prosaic, and point toward a new, if unstable, direction for the band.
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 0 out of
-
Mixed: 0 out of
-
Negative: 0 out of