The Pipettes

Few have tried, and even fewer have succeeded so well at capturing the Phil Spector sound today. Even Johnny Boy's near-brilliant "You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes (And You Get What You Deserve)" had to go as far as nearly stealing the rhythm that made The Ronnettes' "Be My Baby" so brilliant. Hell, Billy Joel will admit outright to flat out stealing it for "Only The Good Die Young." So even those brilliant moments that capture the sound, few have been able to run with it and still create enough music to grab you for a full album.

But now we've got a contendor. The Pipettes, who come adorned in polka-dot dresses ready to handclap their way into your music-loving hearts. 

As I listen to this British trio I'm struck by how far sweeping the sound is. After I get over the initial and obvious Phil Spector comparison, I find myself thinking of everything from The Magnetic Fields, Johnny Boy and The Go! Team to Le Tigre and Julie Ruin, to Annie to... The list just goes on. Bow Wow Wow and Toni Basil? At one moment I even thought of dance music god Annie. in the track "Dirty Mind" I even here the B-52's jumping in singing "Roam if you want to."
The track "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" the group opens in a clap your hands "Hey Mickey you're so fine!" stomp, creating a brilliant wall of sound, but soon move into a crooning more melodic chorus ornamented with the backdrop of cheerleader chants of "And you don't know it!"

As brilliant as that track is, and just pure gold in and of itself, what makes the band work is that they don't rely on that one Hey-Mickey-meets-TheGo!Team stomp, but expands away from such obvious and easy track winners. The underlying style that remains even across their dancier tracks, such as "Dirty Mind" is their densely packed weaving of melody, harmony and outright shouting. And somehow they succeed at each of these pop masterpieces in under 3 minutes each.

As for lasting a whole album? I'm probably speaking too soon, because The Pipettes have only given us a spattering of brilliantly packaged singles that look like they were transported to us straight from 1962. Worse yet, most of these singles are out of print, having only produced 500 to 1000 copies each, so we can only dream of holding such precious vynal beauty in our owns hands. But we can look at them, and pictures of some concerts and get general info about The Pipettes at their website.

In the mean time while we wait for them to compile these pop gems into a full album, give these tracks a whirl!

The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me

The Pipettes - Dirty Mind