Pope Joan
Centurions // Volumes (OIB)
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who hates old-skool, retro, 8-bit keyboards. I mean, if they sounded good in the first place, nobody would’ve bothered inventing better sounding ones for the last 20-odd years. What I’m trying to say is that there was no ‘golden age’ of music that sounded like Atari computer games (the ones that were on cassette) that bands should feel the need to re-visit.
Frankly, after listening to ‘Centurions’ the first track of this double-A side, you think, “yeah that’s quite cool. Bit like Futureheads covering Bloc Party with Crystal Castles as backing”.
But by the time ‘Volumes’ comes on you think “will someone make that irritating as fuck bleeping stop.”
Quirky, angular, up-beat guitar and synth music has been done to the death recently. It all sounds fine but it doesn’t differentiate itself from the rest.
My main problem with Pope Joan is those fucking horrible synths. Sack that and you’d be left with a pretty good band.
Chris Walker
