After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two
albums – 2019 debut ‘Boat’ and 2021 follow-up ‘Welcome Break’ – and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, the new album sees her take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop.
While admitting to the cliché of a guitar-orientated band “grabbing the synths” for album three, this new direction had a real and genuine draw for Blom. Foremost in her mind was cult 2010s English pop band Micachu and the Shapes, led by the effervescent Mica Levi. Across four studio albums and a number of artist monikers, Levi’s band made colourful and vivacious pop music that burst outwards from a grounding in indie music. On ‘Bobbie’, Blom makes similar jumps and blows her own musical landscape wide open.
Also on hand to help her achieve her longtime vision were a pair of collaborators that contribute to two of the album’s highlights. Blom’s partner and vocalist of fellow Dutch indie band Personal Trainer, Willem Smit, joins her on the duet ‘Kiss Me By The Candlelight’, a song lifted from an unreleased project from the pair that recalls Metronomy in its minimal, funky disco pop.
Elsewhere, McCracken helped her push through initial shyness to reach out to Alex Kapranos of former Pip Blom tourmates Franz Ferdinand, who hops on the album’s giddy highlight, ‘Is This Love?’. “He made such a funky chorus,” Blom beams of her collaborator, and ‘Is This Love?’ is the album’s purest shot at pop gold, seeing two indie artists live out their shimmering pop star dreams. It’s an utter delight, with Blom and Kapranos pushing each other higher and higher.
