Cheater

After charming fans of freewheeling indie pop with their debut Birthday, Pom Poko get even more rambunctious and ambitious on Cheater. Though the COVID-19 global pandemic prevented the band from road-testing these songs the way their constant gigging let them refine their debut, their second album still reflects their growing experience. Pom Poko sound looser and more cohesive on these spiky fluorescent outbursts, and the way they turn the bits and pieces other bands wouldnt think of putting together into swift, dazzling collages is truly impressive. To challenge conventional notions of femininity on Like a Lady, Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit adds a spoonful of sugar to her vocals, while Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne channels the elephantine riffs of the Breeders Cannonball. More often, though, Pom Poko call to mind the experimental noise-pop acts that flourished in the mid-2000s, such as Ponytail and especially Deerhoof, to whom Pom Poko were often compared upon Birthdays release. Like that group, these Norwegians know how to turn a handful of minutes into a miniature epic, particularly on Andy Go to School, a careening yet precise workout Deerhoof would be proud to call their own. On Look, they transform a walk outdoors into a bracing exercise in mindfulness, and when Jamtveit sings you can breathe, you can breathe over Tonnes crushing onslaughts, it feels like a reminder to stay calm even when things are anything but. Though Birthday was full of audacious moves like the barreling interpolation of the Beatles Day Tripper, Pom Poko shift gears more smoothly on Cheater. The contrast between Andrews swelling keyboards and vocals and its staccato guitars and bass is so striking, its almost visual. Here and on the other rare moments when the band catches their breath, like the elastic ballads Danger Baby and Body Level, they display an appealingly alien beauty. Its not every day when a band makes a second album thats more thrilling than their debut, but Pom Poko arent an everyday band. Their tricks are always in service of their songs on Cheater, and their excitement about the possibilities of their music is utterly contagious. ~ Heather Phares