Search - Horrorpops :: Bring It on (Dig)

Go Patty go!

Emily Johnson | Bloomington, IN | 09/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I liked Hell Yeah!, but this album is amazing. Horrorpops aren't psycho, they're not punk, they're not anything except good old rock, and they explore it in all aspects on this album. It seems like they have developed and a band a lot since the last album, and the lyrical and musical content is much better. They've definatley got their own style, and all people want to do is label them, but I think they'll break any labels with Bring It On."

Not another cow in the Herd....

J. Ramirez | Applevalley, CA. | 04/29/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not particularly a huge fan of the Horrorpops. That being said I own this album, I have heard this album and I have heard everyone's gripes about this album. I wouldn't call this 100% Psychobilly at all (although the slap-bass is apparent in some of the songs and not so apparent in others) and I agree with one of the reviews below that this band was not trying to sound 100% Psycho. With that I believe the Horrorpops have taken a new direction with this genre much like Tiger Army has with their third album and I comend them on this. Who wants to hear the same old Psychobilly that you can hear and buy for a dime a dozen these days...? It all sounds the same! This new Psycho/Rock/Punk hybrid music is a sigh of relief if you ask me... don't you agree?"

Great guitars, great voice, great MUSIC!

Alex Nennig | New London, WI | 02/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is great, I don't know why so many are complaining when this album is clearly better than Hell Yeah! ever was.



And their first album was great!



They did stray farther away from the rockabilly since the last album, but it's still really enjoyable, bouncy, fun music that embraces the right amounts of rock, punk, rockabilly, and a little bit of pop (Heck, if you told me "Hit and Run" was a cut from No Doubts "Tragic Kingdom" I wouldn't think twice). Patricia Day sounds even better on this album, sounding somewhat like a drunk, foreign Gwen Stefani. I love her voice, the way she chews and spits some of those words... She has to be one of the best female vocalists I've ever heard.



What makes Bring It On! it better than Hell Yeah! is that the songwriting is much better, and they all but dropped the goth imagery. The only horror themed song they have on here is "Walk Like A Zombie." The rest is much more varied, plenty of songs about love, a song about rebelling against musical conformity ("Freaks In Uniform" which lets you know from the start that this album isn't *going* to be a repeat of their debut), a song about overdrinking (the hilarious "Crawl Straight Home" featuring the line "coated tongue and hairy teeth/I guess I'm not so lady like"), and the gorgeous murder ballad "S.O.B." (great vocals on that song, she really puts some bite into those lines) just to give you an idea.



But what really *REALLY* sells this record for me is the guitar work. They apparently switched out a guitarist and replaced him with some dude from Tiger Army (the bass player, I heard) meaning you have two former bass players from other psychobilly bands playing guitar. It sounds weird, but I couldn't be happier with the results. The guitars on the album really shine thanks to some gorgeous arrangements and a smart sense of subtlety. I mean, they aren't doing anything technically impressive with them (in other words, no Eddie Van Halen soloing or anything like that), but the stuff they do with thier instruments is pretty inventive. Sometimes they're playing these spidery little lines over the chords, or they'll do some echoey, reverbed, surf-style chord swooping. There's a song ("You Vs. Me" I think) where they drop the chord progression in favor of just slashing a quick powerchord every fourth beat so you just hear a quick "chick" in the background for a verse. Man, there's so much stuff that I've noticed upon repeated listens, I can't begin to remember it all, but believe me when I say this whole album has lots of interesting sonic layers if you bother to look for them.



Whats impressive about that is they could have just been banging out power chords the whole time and still made a fun album, but the guitarwork clearly shows they put a lot of time and thought into this album. It shows a surprising amount of intelligence, and while some of this type of thing was on Hell Yeah! its much more apparent on Bring It On! which tells me the Horrorpops were really shooting for a high level of quality, and I'd say they achieved it by giving us a intelligent mutli-layered musical experience.



You could pop this album in an enjoy it right away for its catchy and fun songs, but you can also surround yourself with a decent stereo and look for all the little guitar parts you didn't notice the first time around popping out of your speakers.



In short, the HorrorPops are easily the best band on Hellcat since the Dropkick Murphys (and I dare say I enjoy the HorrorPops even better than DKM), and you'd be missing out if you didn't pick up Bring It On! right away.



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