Launch
Bi-Monthly Entertainment CD ROM
Issue No. 8

Magnapop
Rubbing Doesn't Help
(Priority)

Rating: **** (out of 5)

by Chuck Crisafulli

What is it that makes a great pop tune pop along so poppily? "Candyman"-sized hooks? The sugary crunch of speeding guitars? The shaggy haircuts? Hard to say for sure but plenty of bands these days are jumping headlong into the New Pop jam-jar with a powerful hankering for sing-along choruses and a solemn will to do right by their Raspberries records. Not many are as niftily, upliftingly successful as Georgia-based quartet Magnapop, who, on their second full-length album, offer a startling, all-you-can-consume buffet of sweet pop pleasures.

What makes this record worth stealing? You mean aside from the fact that it takes its title from Ben-Gay ad copy and features a catchy blast of a song called "Juicy Fruit" and an even catchier blast called "Come On Inside"? Well, there's the energetically inverted "Teen Spirit" riffing of "This Family", the cranked-up playfullness of "Firebrand" and the thoroughly enlightened apathy of "I Don't Care". And, if the guitars don't get you, the voices will. Frontwoman Linda Hopper has the sultriest alto since Karen Carpenter ("Open The Door" being a sad magnus opus equal to "Rainy Days And Mondays"), and when guitarist Ruthie Morris takes a turn at the vocal mic she delivers the taunting (and, uh, kinda arousing) chick-punk of "Hold You Down".

The band has had some estimable talents handle production in the past, i.e. Michael Stipe and Bob Mould. Here it's punk stalwart Geza X keeping the colors bright and the snare drum snappy. Oh, did I mention this stuff is not only really fun but really smart too? Not a goofy, winky lyric to be had in this bunch. So what you get is a rare treat of a combo platter -- words that make you think and feel, and music that makes you want to dance with happy feet the way Snoopy does in all those Peanuts specials.