Pizzagirl - Season 2 EP

Pizzagirl
Season 2 EP
2018
Spotify

There is something special about this new EP from Pizzagirl that is hard to put your finger on. The Liverpool based artist plays with 80s nostalgia and electropop vibes, but rather than relying on the same old tropes that have plagues electropop for the past year Pizzagirl goes in a different direction. This feels like a home recording, but a really damn good one. The synths punch through and the bass swells as Pizzagirl's vocal bounces in an out. I've been very critical of electropop and 80s nostalgia in the past, but even though this album ticks both of those boxes somehow it manages to push through. Kind of. There is a sense of jubilation at the outset of this record that does not translate throughout. "blossom at my feet, flower" sounds like it's off key from the first moment and the high school level love story feels played out. There is just very few moments on this record that feel like anything new. The first track takes you down this new road and gives you hope that this record might be a bit different but then it just falls into the same traps. Pizzagirl relies on such a strict 80s electropop formula that his music ends up sounding dated and silly. The recording is modern and perhaps that's what gives a jolt when you first listen, but then everything else is just an absolute bore.

As each track kicks in with some promise but then it stays right there. Pizzagril at times feels like it is trying to make fun of pop while also actively participating in it. There is this totally odd push and pull that never resolves itself on this album. So much of it feels disjointed and strange, but at the same time not intriguing. It's fun to make a wild record where you are saying all the wrong things, but this album doesn't do that, it just sort of exists in the terrible middle. You would like to have something else to say, but essentially this record is just kind of boring. There is a lot of maturing that Pizzagirl needs to do before this becomes a fully fleshed out idea. For now it's just kind of bad.

4.4 out of 10