Cinderpop

After a four year hiatus where they could be found in various studios, living rooms and attics doing musical machinations, Vancouver indie pranksters Cinderpop have emerged with a new album entitled “Manic Sparkles”. 

With most of its sixteen songs under three minutes, Manic Sparkles is indeed a manic road trip of left curves that eventually circles back on itself. From the orchestral melancholia of “Alistair and Allison”, through the Pixieesque “Wallowing”, to veer left into the REMesque majesty of Florentine, then veering once more into the insatiably groove-riden Sevens, all in the course of eleven minutes, leaves the listener happily dumb-founded. If it is a musical dog’s breakfast there are some very tasty tidbits and somewhere beneath it all, Kevan Ellis (vocals, guitar), Erin Jane (vocals, keyboards), Joel Myers (bass, vocals), Digger Watkins (drums) and Mark Jowett (guitar), have a master plot.

This plot involves a variety of themes from the profound to the trivial: including the Cult of Joe from Yokohoma, and day-to-day spats with neighbours playing dress up games in a nuclear fall out shelter.  Featuring a whole gamut of instrumentation, Manic Sparkles is Cinderpop’s most diverse and sonically ambitious album, and one that over many listens continues to be endlessly revealing.