Top Less - Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party
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| Top Less - Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party |
Release Date: 2nd September
OK, in case you hadn't got this
from the album title, this is a fun album. This is big bouncy pop tunes,
Scissor Sisters style lyrics and thumping beats that make your ear drums dance.
But there is thought and care behind the fun, this isn't just throw away stuff.
Opening and album track, 'Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party' could be passed off as
a slightly risqué Europop hit from the early naughties but in the context of
this album it is more like the theme tune for another episode of the Top Less
Popumentary following their 'antics' and 'shenanigans'. 'Colleen Harpe' is definitely a Scissor
Sisters track, complete with pop melodies tinged with sadness and mental lyrics
("skinny legs and a black beret" is mentioned too many times) and
'Robin' is either a children's TV theme tune or a slightly mad ode to the late,
great Robin Gibb. However, as I said, there is depth here and 'Polar Bears' is
a slowed down, morning sex kind of tune that genuinely features the line
"Let's put on bath robes, pretend we're polar bears" and "hold
me close so I don't get frost bite". It's a bit like watching a farfetched
Sci-Fi film, if you expect too much or start to point out the plot holes (or in
this case look for the political statement in the lyrics) then you won't get
anything out of this album but if you just take your shirt off and dance around
the kitchen to it then it's awesome - your cats may give you strange looks
though.
For a track called 'Club Banger',
there is a certain lack of punch but we're back on track with 'Diamond', a
track that starts of like an 80s electro ballad before becoming a song that any
number of 'kooky' singer songwriters would kill to get their hands on (I'm
looking at you Kate Nash and Lily Allen). And then we have 'Sexy Sexy'. 'Sexy
Sexy' is a song that probably uses the word 'sexy' more than any other song in
existence and is somewhere between a Flight of the Conchords pastiche, Prince
and LMFAO which, well, it works. Don't ask me why or how but it just does.
'Danger Love', the single that brought these nutters to my attention, is
actually one of the more sombre tracks on this album as Top Less veer more
towards a more Bat For Lashes style that is like the cool night air on your
skin as you tumble from a sweaty club in a messy, sloppy grapple with the
latest focus of your lust. On 'My 5', we are presented with the kind of
indie-dance-pop that so many London bands are trying to get the hang of at the
moment but the difference is that Top Less have understood that the pop element
needs to be as important (if not more so) as the indie and dance elements.
The beginning of 'Go Go Spaceman'
is a like a hard hitting Lemon Jelly tune before the lyric of "take off
your silver jacket, don't be shy now, I want to see your package, I'm gonna
make you say meow" takes music to an entirely new level of camp. Seriously,
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, George Michael and Scissor Sisters seem like a
Conservative AGM compared to these guys. Final track, 'Slovakia', is another
nod to the more indie influences of the band but you can still dance to it and
it has a freakin' steel drum solo in it which is AOK in my book - although I
don't know how big steel drums are on the Slovakian music scene. All in all,
this isn't one for the music purists but if you like your pop, you like to
dance and you recognise that it's OK for music to be a bit of fun with a sense
of humour in the lyrics then I can't recommend Top Less highly enough. It's
your call.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/TLGLTP?fref=ts