Popstrangers more than successfully take all of these elements from other groups you know and love, and stirs them together in an appeasable soup, a brilliant melange of styles that ultimately comes out of the wringer sort of sounding something like their own.
Antipodes is that rare record that looks at the demise of grunge/post-hardcore as a popular medium while glorifying its dying days, an unfortunate fate brought upon them before big labels turned their attention towards pop rock earnestness.
Popstrangers' ability to conjure up excitement with abrupt blasts of feedback, spasmodic riffs or sudden shifts in song pattern is the most rewarding element of their sound.
This New Zealand three-piece outfit echo influences from early nineties grunge music, ploughing a channel where catchy guitar hooks are layered with discordant and atonal notes, as well as plunging into white noise. The band themselves have described the album as a ‘kind of warped pop record’. The album promises more to come, as it reaches the atmospheric and moody ‘What Else Can They Do’. Yet, the listener has to wait for the closing tracks to locate a hiatus in the ... read more
#47 | / | No Ripcord |
#56 | / | PopMatters |