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There’s something to be said about musicians cutting their teeth in whatever grimy punk scene is relevant to whatever city they may currently reside in. Not only do we see it as a ruthless trial by fire environment for live music, there’s definitely a respectable skill in cramming as many charged thoughts into one particular record. So when a former (we hesitate using the word former) punk decides to explore punk’s nitpicked origins, musical space, time and the dreaded ‘pop’ genre, the results are near consistently exciting to listen to.
That is what you get when you open Le Pie’s EP And He Said Honey, You Look So Fine, a musician who spent her youth smashing across stages as both front woman and drummer of assorted punk bands and is now pulling it all apart and reassembling in the world of lo-fi pop.
Flowing with lo-fi textures and a wave of clever lyricisms, Le Pie paints a brilliant story of romance (or lack of) in And He Said Honey, You Look So Fine.
Le Pie recently stated, “I’ve always thought The Ramones were a sped up/stripped back version of The Beach Boys,”so with that in mind we began our aural exploration with a building anticipation. Opener and first single Secrets sees Le Pie wasting no time in exploring the newfound space, balancing creamy textures and voluminous pop while still maintaining a minimal edge. With all its fuzzy glory the track manages to promote a feeling of nostalgia for an era we never got to live in, coupled with Come Over Here we’ve quickly been caught hook, line and sinker and couldn’t be happier to head into the other-worldly haze.
There are recognisable similarities between Le Pie and the summer heat haze of early Best Coast or Dum Dum Girls but it would be unfair to just start rattling off comparisons, there’s something deeper here (if it helps you assemble what you’re listening to in to cohesive thoughts, we’re all for it).
Lyrically speaking the imagery is strong in this one with lines like, “Let’s start a love affair, we’ll make it better than French history,” from Josephine or perhaps this stand out Animal Friends, “I’ll buy you a dog, you could get me a pony, so when we have fights we won’t have to be lonely”. It’s oozing with romance, be it doomed or not, and plays languidly in the evocative, at times it feels like the music is plainly there to serve as a soundtrack to her cinematic diary-like confessions, but then that would be holding the music in a lower regard.
While we’re busy building our own chic love story in our mind, closing tracks Animal Friends and I Do Not Believe are subtly show that the lyrics and music compliment each other effortlessly, we’re getting to listen to the whole package, an alarmingly well formed idea played for what feels like our ears and our ears only.
They close out the EP dripping in echo, reverb, and love affairs whilst creating a wistful and spacious wall of sound to help support our own fantasy. There’s something to be said for an artist who steps out as confidently as Le Pie seems to have done, there’s usually a few aces left up the sleeve. We are already selfishly looking forward to seeing what those aces hold.
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