Even if this group wasn’t from Estonia (!?!), their step into the international pop scene this year would be equally fascinating because of the world’s definite lack of such a perfect combination of commercial aspect and preserved initial idea of an uncompromising, unruly pop volcano.
It’s pretty rare these days to see a press material conjuring the concept of the album so well, by citing a couple of musical references, which, in this case, are Weezer and Fountains of Wayne (and I’d personally add Ash to this).
I said “concept” because the connections between these bands are the similar experience of listening to their songs and their record/CD collections that are probably also very similar, which, in all four cases, manifests through an original combination of everything that ever made pop/rock’n’roll so interesting.
From the mid-nineties up until now, Totally Blind Drunk Drivers became one of the leading forces on the national scene, which became a bit tiny lately for a capacity that is able to launch a three-minute pop-dynamite fireworks like The Breast Off.
This album is worth having only for a glammy-riff that opens Happylife and which probably couldn’t be heard since one of the cheap Sweet singles and after the first verse you’ll realize that the song itself is even more worth it!
The same formula, with crunchy guitars and sunny vocal harmonies as the main elements, is used in Maria and Game, which is also spiced with a supersimple extrasupereffective “if-you-gotta-go” piano “mann-er”, while the “calm before the storm” strategy, with super-sweet melodies flowing into the guitar buzz, is presented in Dum Dum, Parklife-era-Albarn-like sing-a-long about the Worst Days Ever and in the Buzzcocky Lovers.
We Are The Men and What The Hell, with the chorus that you could only “imagine”, could be described as melodic noise-guitar assaults, leaving Mama Comes the only classic clean-pop interpretation with a growing dynamic tendency culminating somewhere after two thirds into the song.
Discoid-space-age-noises-and-harmonies combined with radio-friendly choruses are what makes Radio (of course!) and Mary Jane instant hits, and as a special bonus, you get the ultimate version of the disco-hit Voyage Voyage and TBDD’s idea of Gainsborouhgh’s Emanuelle along with the verses that the man himself forgot to record.
A clever choice of indie label for their American debut, along with an appropriate media exposure, could easily make a starting point for the next big thing!
[Released by Luna Sea 2001]
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