Pop music needn’t always be the light-hearted pulp of the charts, you know? Or would even call NYC quartet Poppies, pop? Would we call them anything? Yes. We’ll call them good, just like the title of their debut EP, out today on Topshelf Records (cassette), and Super Fan 99 (Vinyl). Good consists of five contemplative songs whose catchy instrumentals and catchier vocal parts are grounded in lyrical earnestness and dark twinges of melody. Opener “Devin” throbs like your heart, a whimsical and inviting and dark depiction of a boy with…some issues? It crescendoes in volume and intensity as it approaches its close, singer May’s voice reaching heights that might unhinge your jaw as much as a the song’s subject matter. It picks up from there, on “Dumb Advice,” rhythms and agitated guitar parts, yet still maintaining wholly inviting structures. It’s a stroll under a sky of clouds threatening rain, a seriousness afoot but you’re untroubled because of the music itself. Behind May’s voice is a calming indifference, lullaby-like in its delivery, especially on “Sunburn,” the height of the EP’s solemnity. There’s a level of perplexity woven in to the vocals and the slight turns the melody takes down dimly lit alleyways. Warbly, watery guitar question your reality for you, and it’s fine. Because it’s pop[pies].
Check out Poppies on tour in June!
10 Philly matinee show @ Baird Mansion Atrium w / Harmony Tividad
10 Philly evening show @ The Pharmacy
11 Baltimore @ Joe Squared
12 DC @ 453
13 Richmond @ Strange Matter
14 Pittsburgh @ house show
15 W Mass @ 13th Floor Music Lounge
16 Boston @ The ER
17 Providence @ Watermyn Coop
