Pom Pom Squad - Ow EP
The latest EP by this Brooklyn four-piece is beautiful vulnerability
Brooklyn "quiet grrl" band Pom Pom Squad may have a cute moniker and description of their sound, but like their riot grrl brethren that it comes from, it's anything but tame. Pom Pom Squad is a four-piece led by vocalist and songwriter Mia Berrin, who on their second EP, have taken the twinkly sounds of Rilo Kiley and Mitski and injected it with the grungy, manic energy of Hole and Bif Naked and the distorted, punk urgency of Bratmobile.
Ow stands out from the opening "Ow (Intro)", a song of delicate heartbreak that is both pensive and biting. It's mostly just Berrin and her guitar, sparkling in a glow of Midwestern emo-esque strings and her voice. The song is beautifully wistful when it sings "he says he wants what's best for me" and biting when it comes back and says "they all say they want what's best for me / but they never try to be the best for me". It's from this you hear the strength of the EP; that when it gets a little brooding, melancholy, pained, it's also gorgeous, vulnerable and definitely unafraid to show the listener honesty and character.
In songs like "Heavy Heavy" and "Honeysuckle", Pom Pom Squad get a little dirtier, a little grungier, amping up the distortion and sludgier percussion work. The hazy bellowing of "Heavy Heavy" adds to the angry introspection of the song; its lines of "It’s getting heavy heavy / Telling everybody that I’m fine / I’m feeling heavy heavy does it mean / I wanna fucking die?" painted by lusciously loud guitar work that would make Steve Albini smile. "Honeysuckle" takes on a similar pained look inside the mind but with a more fuzzed-out, alternative-rock veneer. Berrin's lyrics come across as vividly as she sings "If I’m nothing without you am I anything at all?" It's songs like these, with words like these, that hint of comparisons between Pom Pom Squad's captivating allure with that of Courtney Love and Babes in Toyland during their heydey.
"Cherry Blossom" taps into that beautiful sorrow again, plugging into the aura that is painted when it is just Berrin and her guitar again. It's almost hypnotic at times, and just as quickly as the tension and the magnetism builds, it ends. The anger of the album works because unlike angst, it's calculated and targeted, leaving Ow as much of a substantial outing as it is growth from their 2018 EP Hate It Here. The only real downside to Ow are some moments like on the closing notes of "Cut My Hair"- a song that builds up to its crescendo with more dazzling vulnerability but ends a little quicker than it ought to. In truth, that's the only real con of the EP, that when the orchestral fade-out of "Owtro" howls away, you're left searching for more, with only repeated listens as your respite. But in the end, what could be better for an artist you've recently discovered than to get under your skin and leave you wanting more?
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