Finding the impossibly shaky ground between the Supremes and the Spice Girls the Pipettes manage to package the stereotypes of both ’60s girl groups and the girl-power movement of the late ’90s all fairly subversively and almost always better than the groups they’re imitating.
Musically the album plays it straight while the subversive nature of the album comes from the lyrics. With tongue in cheek “Pull Shapes” finds the girls yelling out vague dance instructions (“Follow my lead and we’ll one two three!”) while “Dirty Mind” has them singing a song to a character they call “hygiene boy.” The true standout though is the anthemic “Your Kisses are Wasted On Me” a surefire hit if it were only released in the right era.
Even though you get the impression that the Pipettes started off the album making fun of girl groups by the end the album seems reverent. It really plays out as more of an homage than a simple imitation. Still their perfection of the genre’s idiosyncrasies makes this one of the most fun albums of the year so far.
