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Pom Pom [LP]
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Barnes and Noble
Pom Pom [LP]
Current price: $28.99
Barnes and Noble
Pom Pom [LP]
Current price: $28.99
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Size: OS
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The first work attributed solely to
since the late 2000s and his first solo album,
finds an uneasy balance between his early days and his later albums with
for
. With slightly murkier production values than either
or
, the sprawling double album nods to
's home-recording days, but features a far wider cast of collaborators -- including
's
and rock polymath
-- than any of his previous music. Similarly, these songs encompass some of his most engaging pop and some of his most aggressively weird music. While
isn't as fragmented as the collections of his early work, the sides of
's music often feel polarized, especially compared to how well they complemented each other on
and
. The album's pop side might fare slightly better, at least on the first few listens: "Put Your Number in My Phone" may be even catchier than
's "Round and Round" or
' "Only in My Dreams" (and the fact that it appears a quarter of the way into
suggests
is aiming for a disorienting listening experience), while "Dayzed Inn Daydreams" delivers more gauzy AM pop that sounds like it was channeled from the early '70s. Elsewhere, the breezily disturbing "Lipstick" could be an '80s new wave ballad written by
, and "Picture Me Gone" mixes mortality and technology into something equally witty and bittersweet. Some of
's more overtly wacky tracks, like the novelty rock and musique concrete collision of "Dinosaur Carebears," take a while time to warm up to, and some, like "Exile on Frog Street," are just too long. However, for every song like these, there's a "White Freckles," a fine tip of the hat to
's legacy. Likewise,
collaborations feel like the passing of the torch from one eccentric to another, whether it's "Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade"'s surreal sugar high, "Jell-O"'s whitebread satire, or the risque surf-pop of "Nude Beach a Go-Go" (
' version of the song on
was even more successful and surprising in context). Indeed, sex is never far away on a
album, and "Sexual Athletics"' mix of cartoonish lust and romantic longing feels like
in a nutshell. Though the way
zigs and zags on
can be dazzling or confusing depending on listeners' patience, in its own way it's one of the best representations of what makes his music fascinating and occasionally frustrating. ~ Heather Phares