Bergen, Norway’s native songs, Popium, make
their proper U.S. debut with their latest album, The
Miniature Mile. The band has been making appearances
all over the world on various film and television
soundtracks, utilizing songs from their three full
length releases. In 2005, the band was featured on
the soundtrack to the Farrelly Brothers film Fever
Pitch.
Apparently Popium is a bit of a supergroup of well
known Norwegian musicians from such bands as Barbie
Jones, Pogo Pops, and Chocolate Overdose (I’m
not making that up!). That said, Popium is still,
at best, a run of the mill conglomeration of mid-tempo
rock infused here and there with some sixties style
melodies. It’s not that the production, songwriting,
or delivery is bad at all, it is just entirely forgettable.
Basically the problem here is that you can listen
to the album over and over and not really remember
what it sounded like. The opening track, “Anchor
Down,” gets your hopes up with its mid-nineties
modern rock sound and the other bookend, a bonus track,
entitled “Suits My Soul,” is the other
possible highlight, mainly due to its southern rock
appeal and the desperately needed dynamic it brings
to the album.
Overall this is a fine CD to put on if you are having
a party. It’s easy to swallow, inoffensive background
music. Everything about this CD is “good,”
a standard that just doesn’t translate into
the modern lingo of quick radio hits and downloads.
Key Tracks: I wouldn’t say any of them are
really better than any others
Reviewed by Mark Fisher
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