By Ezra Lloyd
When we first put this album on in the office, everyone was riddled with anxiety of the quickly approaching deadline for our print edition.
As we listened to this album however, that anxiousness and stress seemed to fade away. Kissing Party, the self described slop pop band out of Denver did a number on the staff. Conjuring images of basement parties long since past and way too many drugs and alcohol. Something sweet in the air that allows you to look at those nights for all that was right with them, and to completely ignore everything that went wrong.
THE GOOD
“Slop Pop” is truly an original sounding genera for sure, however it merely seems to function as a clever Twitter bio, and less so as a deeply defining characteristic of Kissing Party’s sound. In their own right, Kissing Party is severely good at what they are doing, doubly so on this album. With an excellent sense of dynamics and also textural layering, they seem to evoke some grunge, rock-ish, sloppiness that is endearing. At times we even border on surf rock, or what surf rock has become in 2019. It seems that they don’t use synths in any obvious ways and keep to this style of guitar-only slop pop, but I would guesstimate that properly incentivized, they wouldn’t shy away from it.
THE BAD
We were all out of beer when this album came on. You need some vice (cheap beer, cigarettes, cocaine) to listen to this album properly, without it you will be left in a state of longing sadness. Probably (at least for us) something more akin to nostalgia on the “sad-sack” scale. The prerequisite of a vice is (of course) satirical, however after beer was found it improved the sonic qualities significantly.
THE VERDICT
To have a calming effect on a group of people simultaneously is quite the super power. Getting everyone to come to the same general consensus on how this album feels is that much more impressive. So much so, that the recording quality and any other nit-picky criticism seems to completely fall by the wayside. Nostalgia can be a good thing when applied correctly, if it evokes it in a listener, rather than forcing it on people via outdated tropes from decades past. It can also create a longing for the present. Something that Kissing Party is seemingly a master of.
