The Soviettes aren’t really from the former Soviet Union. They are from someplace almost as cold, though–Minnesota. You wouldn’t know it from listening to their new record, titled L.P. III, though. There are heaping spoonfuls of California and New York in their sound, pop and punk and of course the obligatory 80s influence, but it’s all good–candy-flavored, danceable rock music.
All of the Soviettes–even the male drummer–share singing duties on songs running the gamut from a tribute to Minnesota roller derby girls (“Roller Girls”), drunk-dialing (“What did I do?”), friendship (“Together”), the decline of the American dream (“Multiply and Divide”) and traditional pop love songs (“Thinking of You”) none of which clock in at even three minutes long. You can hear Blondie, the Go-Go’s, the Ramones and the Descendents in the Soviettes’ speedy harmonies and glossy, high-energy guitars and drums.
Standout tracks are “Paranoia Cha Cha Cha!,” featured on the Rock Against Bush I CD, and “Middle of the Night,” which echoes Gwen Stefani on her best days, Heart, and Bon Jovi’s classic “Runaway.” It wears its influences on its sleeve, but it’s 80s-referential in strictly the best way, taking the best from everything and leaving behind the tinny keyboards so favored these days.
The title L.P. III seems like it might be a rehash of same-old same-old, but it’s refreshingly not.
Instead, it’s a brew of sugary and spicy music from the past, simmered until caramelized and topped with their own brand of sass, mixing up styles and sounds for music that you wouldn’t be wrong to call pop-punk, but you might be missing something to write it off as merely that.
