The Corner Laughers: Poppy Seeds

It takes a lot to sell me on an overtly twee-pop record. Having Mike Viola as a featured collaborator is a good start. A better start comes in the opening couple tracks of Poppy Seeds, which have the Corner Laughers tearing into everything with relish. Every aspect of their music is expertly designed. This isn’t just fun music for fun music’s sake. What’s on display here is far more complex. The song structures throughout Poppy Seeds are well above par and the individual arrangements (the bass lines, in particular) are surprisingly punchy. With a little distortion, this could have been labeled twee-punk. “Destroy” isn’t a word regularly used to describe twee-pop bands, but the Corner Laughers earn it. They destroy their instruments and anything else in their path on this LP. My only complaint is the too cute vocals, only because no one should confuse this for a kid’s LP.