boy pablo - Soy Pablo EP

boy pablo
Soy Pablo EP
2018
Spotify

This album feels like a record out of time. From the moment it begins, warm indie swells from the speakers, bright sunny and full of hopeful exuberance. There is a youth and unabashed bright eyed wonder to this album that we haven;t heard really since 2016. The last presidential election in the US really fucked artists up. The anthemic folk rock that reigned for a few years was now dethroned by darker more emo fueled productions. In a word I think people got sad. This album however feels retro in the best way. The guitars are splashy and bright and the vocal has that "The Strokes" vibe to it. Even The Strokes fell victim to believing their own hype at a point. boy pablo doesn't feel like that. There is almost zero edginess to this record, but in one of the best ways. Often music that is positive can feel safe, but this seems like the opposite. In trying to find some brightness boy pablo actually changes the perception of what pop needs to be when things get dark. The last Paramore record felt similar, recognizing that there are bad things that will happen in life, but finding a way to get through them is just as important. boy pablo keeps things short here as well, songs rarely are over three minutes long. This gives them a real sense of being firmly rooted in the now rather than for them to hang around for posterity.

While this album feels infitely fresh and freeing it is not breaking any new ground musically. Most of what boy pablo do have been done before, it's just they have not been done in awhile to this effect. You will come across a band who thing they can bring surf rock back around so every song has that distinctive guitar sound. boy Pablo employ the same sound occasionally, but only as an accent rather than the focus of the track. They are borrowing against these older ideas of what an indie pop song can sound like, but not explicitly trying to be a throwback band. It makes their sound feel warm without feeling reheated. There is a hell of a lot to like about this record and the direction that boy pablo are going. Only time will tell if the full album lives up to the hype, but boy pablo are setting themselves up to be quite the indie darlings.

7.8 out of 10