Voodoo Radio – Pop Pills

Voodoo Radio have arrived like a bolt of lightening to the heart of todays music scene, with this their debut mini album Pop Pills, eight tracks of pure unadulterated power pop.  A father daughter team from Cumbria with Tony the super cool experienced guitar maestro dad backing up Paige his ahead of her years drummer and vocalist daughter, who with all the guile of a seasoned pro commands her position at the front of this Savages with a heavy twist of pop duo.

Eight songs are all we get here, but what an eight songs, Space Girls which was released as a stand alone single heads us off into the stratosphere immediately, a blend of punkabilly Cramps esque guitar that also collides headlong into B-52’s territory wonderfully, married with an intoxicating vocal that grabs you and throws you along the train track of sound like a rag doll. 

‘Eat Your Words’ comes in next without a moment for you to take a breath, its sublime guitar riffs played like your right back at the beginning of Rock n Roll, sending a chill down the spine, among all this you find yourself unable to control your urge to nod your head like a crazy fool, and in fact picking up your air drums sticks is a must.  

What Voodoo Radio have here is nothing short of infectious brilliance, every track throws a new slant on what they are capable of ‘Slag Bank’ has Paige showing her down to earth gritty non nonsense vocal telling a story and having you being right there!, then ‘Pretty Boy’ sets off with a Status Quo style riff that’s then dragged down and dirty with an in your face vocal that drips with Joan Jett slickness. 

When listening to any album, the one thing that your always aware of, is that throughout history there is always that one weak track that leaves you wondering how did it ever get in there, to my mind there are not so many albums that can boast a full attention span, this however is a 100% attention grabbing album.

Even a song like ‘Ice Cream Man’ with its ice cream van jingle ear worm of a melody is total genius, a lyric that takes you all the way back to them days at the seaside when you were young with no compromise. 

We are only in January the first month of a hopefully 12 months of full on live music and new releases, but I wonder if this as a debut can be beaten as album of the year, come on, where else can you be waxed lyrical with a song like ‘Turn Out The Light’ total female empowerment in its uncompromising stand point, be fully 70’s glamified with something like ‘She’s So Toxic’ the stand out song for me, and finally given a lesson in how to finish you off, leave you twisted and torn after ‘Basic Bitch’ has scratched your ear drums to oblivion, in a really good way.

If this is the debut, all can be said is wow!   

Too short by another eight songs, so I played it all over again 3 times in a row.

Punk, Glam, Pop, Rockabilly, Rock n Roll genius incarnate that’s Voodoo Radio and Pop Pills.

Out on 27th January via Holy Dotage Records for Pre-order

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