Pop music has picked up a bit of a reputation in recent years, and not necessarily a good one. Thanks to a string of lowest-common-denominator, interchangeable, landfill-bound pop-wannabes, many view the genre as a place for quick-buck, fame-uber-alles, fly-by-night, style-over-substance chancers. But thankfully, artists such as Molly Warburton are doing everything they can to redress that balance.
Her latest EP, Eyes Wide Open, is undeniably pop, effortlessly commercial and easy on the ear (not to mention brilliantly dancefloor-inducing). It also proves that even high-energy pop can be sophisticated and tasteful. This isn’t just pop music; it feels like a fight back.
Take the opener, ‘Am I The One for You?’ sure it ticks all the right boxes for a chart hit, but it is also layered and nuanced; between the beats and bop are all manner of sonic additions that perhaps go largely unnoticed – folk-pop textures, dynamic ebbs and flows, synthy sonics, backing vocal understatement – but had they not been there, they would make the song a much lesser beast.
And it is these inclusions that make her music more than the sum of its parts, that add real value, even if you don’t pick up on them easily, certainly not if at the time you are more concerned with throwing some moves across the dancefloor…which is exactly what you should be doing while this plays.
‘Hopelessly Addicted’ is upbeat, easy-on-the-ear pop perfection; ‘Better Me’ pushes into more indie realms and runs on a glorious array of voice-as-instrument backing sounds; and ‘Dancing With Devils’ blends something of the 90s golden age of R&B-pop with more contemporary and forward-thinking grooves.
And with ‘Shout Louder’ proving that she can do the slow-burning, emotive pop anthem as readily as she can do the more obvious clubland bangers…as I believe the kids are still calling them…anyone with half an ear will realise that we have a real pop talent on our hands.
Even if more commercially minded pop isn’t usually your thing…Eyes Wide Open will be.
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