We Are the Pipettes (2006)

Album Score: 11

As you might have noticed on the album cover, The Pipettes are made up of a trio of females who are dressed up like an early '60s girl group. They're dressed up like that for a reason: this is actually an album full of retro-'60s tunes! Unlike new wave bands like The Go-Go's and Blondie, The Pipettes don't make any real attempts to modernize the music; they aim simply to relive Phil Spector's glory days. This is mostly indistinguishable from genuine early '60s pop songs. The only major updates to the genre are, of course, the new fangled recording technology and perhaps wittier lyrics with more blatant sexuality. These girls also put a highly distinct British accent to their vocals, which is charming depending on how much you find British accents charming. (I suppose if you're British, you won't care.)

The album begins with the title track, a thunderous and extremely catchy pop rocker with bold lyrics that tells us who they are and their philosophy. (“We are The Pipettes, and we've got no regrets / If you haven't noticed yet, we're the prettiest girls you've ever met.”) I'm sure if I ever actually met them, those words would be no lie! Compositionally, it's not a terribly complicated song, but it's memorable and and it has a lot of attitude. That was the perfect way to open the album. What comes next is my personal favorite “Pull Shapes” with a melody that's so catchy and memorable that I have no doubts that could have become a hit in its own right back in the day. The confidence in their vocal performances are engaging all throughout this album, but in that song in particular. You can expect more immaculate melodies and solid vocal performances in “Judy,” “Tell Me What You Want” and “I Love You,” the stellar album closer.

The benefit of creating an album full of songs styled after Phil Spector is that it's automatically going to be fun to listen to. Even if the melodies aren't always consistently catchy, all of these songs are still upbeat and these girls can always muster enough spirit to cook up a storm. Unfortunately, the downfall of an album like this is it only has one trick. After enjoying the snot out of the first couple songs—basking myself in all that exciting early '60s energy—the novelty starts to wear pretty thin. Part of that has to do with the fact that some of these songs are better than others, but I confess to getting bored quickly with albums as non-diverse as this. Believe me, I get similarly bored with actual '60s girl group albums, so I guess We Are the Pipettes are authentically retro in more ways than one.

Songs like “Dirty Mind” and “A Winter's Sky” are composed and arranged well, but they don't seem to be quite as melodically radiant as the other songs. It's impossible to describe *what* makes certain pop songs seem to stand out more than others, but you can immediately tell a great one when you hear it. Roughly half of these songs have that sparkle, which is actually quite a substantial number for a pop album.

Interestingly, this band has gone through pretty heavy line-up changes through its inception. That's pretty strange, especially for a band that's just started out, but it's not unheard of in good old rock 'n' roll. Two of the band members who recorded this album have left. The only one that is left, Gwenno, was a replacement herself to someone who later started the band The Indellicates. (The exception is the back-up instrumentalists, which have remained fairly static so far.) I assume they'll continue to release albums under The Pipettes' names. After all, I don't think they have quite the name power to just tour around the world performing these songs. I certainly understand why these girls wouldn't have wanted to stick with the group for so long. This niche they found for themselves is a pretty limiting one. A cute idea, certainly, but nothing a serious and ambitious young musician would want to do for too long. Based on how well these songs are written and how fun it is to hear them performed, you can bet these girls are capable of other things.

Apparently, it was important that I reviewed the UK release of We Are the Pipettes and not the US release. The American version is slightly different; it was remixed. I compared bits of both versions, not thinking I would particularly notice the difference, but I did notice something; the drums were quite a bit louder in the UK version. The loud drums seem to suit these songs better, particularly in the opening track and “Dirty Mind.” So, I am officially recommending that you hold out for the British release if you're interested in hearing this. Although if you can't find it, then it's probably not that vital.

Read the track reviews:
We Are the Pipettes

American Demo (2008)

Released by The Indelicates

Album Score: 11

It didn't take long for Julia Clark-Lowes to leave The Pipettes. She didn't even stick around for them to release their first album! I understand why she would want to leave that group since they were kind of kitschy, but why not at least stick around for the music videos and the glory? Women! I'll never understand them! But anyway, here is The Indelicates, the band she started with Simon Clayton in 2005.

So what of the first ex-Pipettes solo album? To be perfectly honest I'm not terribly impressed with it. It's an intelligent album with a fair number of entertaining moments, but it also has nothing that really digs into me. I've been into making iPod playlists in recent months, and I can't say I would put anything from this album on a playlist. The closest thing it has is perhaps “The Last Significant Statement to Be Made in Rock 'N Roll” with its bubbly, Cars-like rhythm and catchy melody. It's quite a nice little toe-tapper, and it shows how wonderfully entertaining these guys can be, but I don't exactly get the burning desire to hear it more than once. I also like “Sixteen” for that poppy, bubblegum beat and those edgy guitars. If you only listen to two songs from American Demo, then make it those two.

Unfortunately, if you listen to the entire album, it's starkly apparent that they weren't the strongest songwriters around. For every interesting piece like “The Last Significant Statement” and “Sixteen,” there is another one that comes across as rather stale. “Our Daughters Will Be Free” is a cute sort of new-wave throwback, but the melody is weak and I get tired of listening to it halfway through. “Better To Know” has a similarly nicely done instrumentation, but it's entirely forgettable.

There are a number of other nice songs that I do enjoy, but I'm not too excited about. “Julia, We Don't Live in the '60s” is a fun upbeat pop-rocker that you can dance to. “America” has a marginally interesting melody and fun to listen to. “We Hate the Kids” starts out quietly but gradually builds up into something louder, convincingly giving me the impression that it's EPIC. Nicely done, I say!

By the end of the album, I start to get a little wary of their strategy of tacking on rock 'n' roll sections at the end of their songs just to keep them from growing too boring. That strategy has been employed by plenty of artists and have worked magic (“Hey Jude,” anyone?), but these ones aren't quite as successful. They don't initially hook me in strongly enough for me to want to carry on with it to its rock 'n' roll section, and so all that energy seemed a bit unnecessary. They do this in so many songs that I just get tired of it. That said, there's one instance where they did that pretty well in “Unity Mitford,” which features a pretty good melody!

There are plenty of nice songs on American Demo for me to mildly recommend some of it to listeners who like this sort of music. I'm personally not too wild about it (this is a weak 11), since there aren't enough spots that grab my attention. I would just recommend that you check out some of the singles first and then go from there. You can't go too wrong with songs like “The Last Significant Statement to Be Made With Rock 'N Roll,” “Sixteen,” and “Unity Mitford.” See what you think. Also, it's been pointed out to me by a fan of this album that these guys write excellent lyrics, and I tend to agree with that. If you like lyrics more than I do, then I invite you to check out these lyrics for yourself at this website: http://lyrics.wikia.com/The_Indelicates.

Also, you might be aware that there are different versions of this album floating around. Mine had a hidden track (“Outro”) and six bonus tracks. Other versions may or may not have different bonus tracks on them. ...I talked about the ones that I had, so they're there for you to read. Generally, they're about as good as the material in the album. They're fun but somewhat stale. I wouldn't put them on an iPod playlist. (I guess I have a new “iPod playlist” test to measure indie-pop albums!)

Read the track reviews:
American Demo

All reviews are written by Michael Lawrence.