Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
Delaware’s The Splashing Pearls combines a folk-punk spirit à la the Violent Femmes with Afro-Caribbean influences, replete with ukuleles, steel drums, and dazzling, soulful vocals from singer Larkin Salemi, sounding like a more tropical version of Amy Winehouse. After five years, the trio still brings the same amount of energy and fun on their new, fifth album, Tabloid Tales.
The band takes a basic pop structure and adheres to it quirky instrumentals and offbeat twists and turns. As hinted in the title, the focus of the album is on storytelling, and even classics such as The Wizard of Oz form the backbone of songs like “Emerald City.” The rest of the album is “full off tales of love, lust, greed, hurt and fun” from the wickedly thrilling “Voodoo Love” to the surprising, leftfield country twang of “Good Idea.”
Some of the songs like the opener “Richman’s Arcade” tackle heavier subjects than you’d expect from a band like this, but even at moments like these, they’re still not above having a good time. Only if you pause a second from dancing and thought about the lyrics would you grasp the deeper meaning, but by no means is it necessary to stop the party. Tabloid Tales will be released April 28th, and if you’re looking for an original, fun, and occasionally pensive soundtrack for your upcoming summer parties, I highly suggest checking this out.
