El Perro Del Mar - El Perro Del Mar

Genre pop Publisher Control Group External Links Official El Perro Del Mar Website Official Control Group Website

Wrapping a pop single in such ear-pleasing accoutrements as incessant hooks and lush, buoyant arrangements in order to offset some devastatingly dismal lyrical content is a time-honored practice, but with more and more mainstream pop singles being of the asinine variety (superficially fun as many of them are), it seems lately the tactic hasn't been used nearly enough as it should be. Thank goodness for Swedish songstress Sarah Assbring, AKA El Perro Del Mar, who in the singer-songwriter tradition of Morrissey, Stephen Merritt, and her gifted young compatriot Jens Lekman, seems to relish the role of the death of the party.

Dripping with irony to the point where you want to take the young lady and wring her out on the front steps, Assbring juxtaposes misery and luminous beauty with the ease of a master composer on her full-length debut. Displaying the same kind of minimalist predilection towards classic 60s pop that Angelo Badalamenti excelled at more than a decade ago, the wispy-voiced Assbring bears a strong similarity to Badalamenti's ingénue Julee Cruise, but with a significant difference: emotion. Whereas Cruise's gorgeous vocals were deliberately enigmatic and icy, Assbring wallows in her own horrible misery. "Come on over baby, there's a party going on," she sings at one point, only it's delivered in a quavering voice that sounds on the brink of tears, and not long after, she transforms the classic refrain of, "Be bop a-lula," from a nonsensical expression of joy to a gutwrenching lament, a perfect encapsulation of an album steeped in traditional pop music, sung by a woman on the brink of emotional collapse.

The 33 minute record is so simple in its structure, with minimal instrumentation, centered primarily on acoustic guitar, tambourine, and keyboards, but the execution is so impeccable, anything more would have been too much. "I've done just about all trying to care about everyone else except me," she croons on "Candy", her whimsical "shoo-be-doo"s contrasting enticingly with the funereal organ and tympani. The lilting "Dog" is not unlike a Lekman song, with its self-deprecating humor, while the wondrous "I Can't Talk About It" bounces gently like a Supremes tune, some Spectorian tympanis adding an emotional punch with each thrum. "Coming Down the Hill" and the sprightly "It's All Good" both hint at 60s Burt Bacharach, and bring an unexpected sense of optimism to the album, but it's not long before the happiness is obliterated.

"God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)" hits all the right notes perfectly. One of the singles of the year, it carries itself with the kind of retro grace that singers like Richard Hawley and A Girl Called Eddy have exhibited in recent years, boasting a powerful hook and a gentle, yet sweeping musical backdrop of piano, strings, and horns. It positively shimmers, its simplicity and economy enabling it to quickly get into our heads and never leave. Almost as great is album closer "Here Comes That Feeling", a song that would have sounded tailor-made for Spector and the Ronettes 40 years ago, but its minimal arrangement of piano, organ, and saxophones suits Assbring to a tee, who sounds like she's desperately trying to stay happy when she knows full well that her severe depression is barreling in on her like a freight train.

UK indie pop sweeties the Pipettes had enough charisma, retro charm, and winning choruses to win us over on their pleasant 2006 debut, but they lack the emotion, the desperation that great groups like the Ronettes, the Shangri-La's, and the Crystals sang of. El Perro Del Mar, on the other hand, is the total package, she knows the craft inside-out, and the way she manipulates us (and makes us continue to want to be manipulated) is a big reason why this album marks the arrival of a major songwriting talent. In Ms. Assbring's hands, feeling awful never felt so good.