The Spores – Doompop

Artist: The Spores
Album: Doompop
Label: SideCho Records
Purchase: SideCho Records Store
Release Date: October 14th, 2008

Overall: 8
Music: 8.5
Lyrics: 7.5
Production: 8

Doompop? Is it the cool new term to describe someone’s shoes? a new brand of lollipops? Or the latest album from The Spores? The answer would be the latter (although those lollipops sound pretty tasty), Doompop is the latest release from the band The Spores, it’s a genre defining record that meshes cool beats, strong lyrics, and catchy hooks for a one night stand on an apocalyptic dance floor.

The album begins with the instrumental “Blood Red Rose 2″, starting of the album with tapping mechanical drums until the techno breakdown lets you know what the album is all about. It’s very much a chaotic feeling listening to Doompop, but its the sort of “organized chaos” you just can’t help but embrace and lose yourself in.

Doompop retains a very cool, slick sense in every way. From the instruments, right down to the vocal delivery it’s a very cool affair. Right from the beginning, the sex-on-the-dance-floor sentiments exude on “Ghost Town”, or the roughly sensual vocal implications of “Faster Master”, it is an album that doesn’t falter in it’s ability to exude a strong sexuality to it.

Even though at times their are reflections of other female fronted acts in The Spore’s music (Metric, Shiny Toy Guns), for the most part they are able to stay original in their composition of songs, melding the real instruments (“The Spinning Wheel”) with their obvious techno persuasions (“Won’t Save You”). They create a great balance between what’s real and what’s not, adding great effect to the album as a whole.

Something that needs to be noted about Doompop is that, at its heart it is a very pop like record, filled with great vocal hooks and easy to access lyrics. While the atmosphere created in something very dark and chaotic, it’s hard not to get lost in it and truly enjoy what is happening. It showcases a spastic change from genre to genre throughout that makes this release something new every single time. All you can do in the end is embrace the chaos, and enjoy the ride.