The Pomps propel us into 2025 with an immediate contender for my album of the year list. In 2023 The Pomps released “The Bottom of the Pomps”, an incredible album that blew me away and remains one of my favorite albums. I was definitely not expecting a follow up album so soon, but on January 17th, with the release of the first single off the album, the Pomps officially announced their follow up album, “Partial Eclipse of the Pomps”. Like their previous album, this album is being released on Bad Time Records.
The Pomps last album had a very unique blend of two tone ska and new wave that had a very 1980’s meets 2020’s feel and had the perspective of someone growing older and often being reflective. The album artwork for both the last album and this one (as well as their debut album “Top Of The Pomps”) feature geometric shapes and patterns and bright colors with arrows pointing up and/ or down. Then, the name of the album being “Partial Eclipse of the Pomps” being a play off of the Bonnie Tyler song really set me up for a serious 80s music vibe that would play very close to their previous album.
I hit play to the new single “That’s Not A House” and I was not at all disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they nailed all the things that made me fall in love with the last album, and there was so much more. This track did not take long to jump towards the top of the list of my favorite tracks from the band. The intro rhythm is fun and catchy, and feels familiar in the way you can hear 2 seconds of a previously unheard song without any hint of vocals and know exactly what band you are listening to. When the melodic vocals come on, singing in a way that makes you want to sing along before you know any of the words, with a rhythm that elicits a smile during the worst day, and I immediately felt love.
The lyrics are inherently political without being over the top. A wrong turn on a test drive for a car leads the listener to an unfamiliar part of town. Not far away- not far away at all, just over a hill, yet, a part of town you’ve never seen, where public transportation doesn’t take you, to the part of town that is completely cut off and hidden from the rest of us- a part of town where people own exorbitant wealth, where single family homes are the size of apartment complexes, where people have more wealth than entire city blocks. This peek into how well off some people are is a wake up call- while we are off working for scraps, trying to do better, even when we think we are doing well, we are so much closer to being homeless and on the street than we will ever be to the extravagance that hides where our streets don’t connect, just over that hill, where the bus doesn’t take us. The song doesn’t say all of the directly, but it does an amazing job of eliciting these images and allowing your mind to take you there.
And, yes, the song does feel familiar, like a warm welcome home- but it doesn’t feel like it’s just a continuation of the previous album. For one, this song lets the guitars out. The solos on this song are nothing like anything on “Bottom of the Pomps”. The vocals are a little clearer, the song doesn’t feel quite as new wave. If the last album set the mood and created a world for the listener to experience, this song is filling the listener with those experiences to live in. The sound is familiar, but everything is more alive now. The synthesizer/ organ is vibrant, and the guitar solo has me stopping and appreciating it every single time I listen to the song. I probably played this song 30 times before I started writing, and 30 times I stopped what I was doing and played along with the guitar in my head.
The album releases on February 21, and I absolutely cannot wait until then.
Written by Gimp Leg
