FAVORITE ALBUM #6

#6 NOISE AROUND ME / TIGER BABY [taste] [buy]

key tracks: at least i'm honest / girlfriend / just for a day / parkova / prolusion

i'm the first to admit that a lot of synthpop is souless, emotionally vacant, and robotic. if you go back to the late 80s and early 90s, most of it is a cheezefest. if you were in utah country back then, you even had your home grown cheezy synthpop band, agnes poetry. am i the only who remembers them? man, they were truly craptastic.

i think a lot of folks base their opinions of the currenty crop of synth-based bands on those relics of a former time and consequently dismiss the current crop of synth-based bands without ever giving them a fair shake. that's too bad because there are some first rate synthpop bands out there who take classic approaches to songwriting, but opt for a moog instead of a guitar. today's synthpoppers are classy, cool, and downright sexified. maybe it would have more street cred were it called 'poptronica.' yeah, probably.

danish trio tiger baby's second album, 'noise around me,' is one such band. synthpop is inherently built on the hook, and no one seems to understand that better than tiger baby keyboard doods benjamin teglbjærg and nikolaj gregersen. they provide vocalist pernille pang some exquisite acid-laced background for her to sing over. these tracks are sleek, uniformly excellent, expertly arranged, interesting to listen to, and most importantly, instantly memorable. plus they made a killer cover of depeche mode's 'strangelove.' so, you know, bonus points right there. play 'noise around me' at your next party and your cool factor will rise exponentially.