Superorganism, World Wide Pop: REVIEW

Superorganism, World Wide Pop (Domino)

Keeping your creative flow as a band can be challenging when only one member leaves, let alone three. For Superorganism, losing three members after their breakthrough 2018 self-titled debut reduced them to a five-piece, but hasn’t diminished their bubbly, psychedelic indie pop sound. The London-based outfit’s sophomore LP, World Wide Pop, builds upon the band’s TechniColor, youthful-sounding sonic palette while alternating lyrically between equal amounts of excitement and despair.

Their unique approach to sampling (especially of everyday sounds, such as single “Teenager”’s opening soundbite of a car engine starting), heavy use of features (CHAI, Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and British rapper Dylan Cartlidge, among others) on songs like “It’s Raining” and “Into the Sun,” and catchy pop hooks (the breezy “On & On” is up there among the band’s most infectious tunes) are each on full display here. 

Attempts at expanding their sound don’t always land — lead vocalist Orono Noguchi overdoes it with the Auto-Tune on “crushed.zip,” while other songs can feel a touch overproduced and boasting one too many ideas — but the band nonetheless sounds bigger, brighter and more confident, especially on summer-ready tunes like “Solar System” and opener “Black Hole Baby.” Even if World Wide Pop is a bit front-loaded and could’ve used a couple more earworms to make it truly stack up to their buzz-making debut, Superorganism still show they can keep nurturing and growing their vibrant, endearingly cartoonish musical identity. 8/10 Trial Track: “On & On”

This review was originally published in the August issue of Cult MTL.

For more on Superorganism, please visit the band’s website.

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