Review: Greg Pope - Pop Motion Animation

Truth be told, I'm a goddamn cultist at heart. I'll gladly argue about arcane pieces of music history all night long, if I could only find someone local who knows what the hell I'm talking about. I would also happily contribute to the building of a modern pantheon of power pop demi-gods as long as there is a spot reserved for Greg Pope. The former front-man/song-writer for Edmund's Crown is quietly (and loudly) putting together a resume of pop music that can stand proudly among the best of the last twenty years.

You can add the splendid (and pithy) Pop Motion Animation to the ranks of first rate Pope releases. Pope certainly knows what he's doing in these solo albums. There is a surety and a confidence that carries each song to exactly where it needs to go resulting in another rewarding listening experience.

The album begins with a terrific one-two punch with the sparkling "Partner In Crime," another in a string of Pope lyrics looking at the dynamics of friendship, and the marvelously tuneful "More Like You," a perfectly realized jewel of a song.

"The Mattress" is a driving piece of southern tinged rock and a top-notch example of the genre. "Don't Wait" and "The Hope Of Escape" are both lovely acoustic ballads, the former being a hell of a nice sing-along as well. "The Yeti" is a tone perfect bit of 1970's AM radio melodrama shlock, made all the more effective by Pope's dead straight performance. Even a hint of a knowing wink would have totally ruined the whole thing, but Pope is far too assured to allow that to happen.

Indeed, Pope's sense of himself is directly expressed in what feels like, to me at least, the heart of the record: "Rebel Inside," nicely encapsulates the position any part-time power popper must confront in a full-time world that doesn't know or appreciate what may lie below. When Pope sings "I'm just another worker bee, well isn't that nice? But what you probably can't see is I'm making a fist that wants to punch through the box you're putting me in!" it's damn hard not to make that fist yourself. That to me is the sign of an artist that is doing it right. We are invited along and given the inside scoop, so much so that we cannot help but to identify with the artist.

I'm not sure exactly how he does it. I'm just glad he does.

Grade: A-