Imperial Teen: On
Merge Records MRG206 2002
http://www.imperialteen.com
Sometimes you need sugar in your Pop
life, then again sometimes you need to get some syrup with that sugar. Imperial
Teen is the musical equivalent of pouring a pack of Pixie Stix into your mouth
and then washing them down with a tall glass of coke…or maybe that should
be Jolt instead, and then polishing it off with a bucket of syrup. Imperial
teen floods their new release On with the sweetest pop ditties that anyone
could want to sink their cavity-ridden teeth into. Bringing back all the puppy-love
of the Teen Beat period of the early nineteen nineties, Imperial Teen strives
to make music for the make-out-club set, and goes one further by spooning
in some sweet synth sounds and blending them with zippy power chords that
will leave you wanting to get your grove on with just about anything in the
room. Maybe that's the problem with On- it is so upbeat and bouncy
that it quickly turns saccharine by the third listen and you realize that
that thing you've been kissing was the family dog. Of course even the sweetest
treat can't be resisted and Imperial Teen is one auditory sucker you'll lick
till your teeth rot out, and your gums wither away- pickled in the sweet sugary
taste of On.
-John Southern