New Young Pony Club –The Optimist

Wed 17th Mar, 2010 in Music Reviews

The last time I heard anything from New Young Pony Club was the Modular Christmas party in 2006. I had been looking forward to their set all night, and then three songs in some gangly punter started throwing elbows and landed one square between my eyes.

And perhaps it’s the bitter memory of that night, or perhaps the complete disappearance of that entire “new rave”/”disco punk” class of 05/06, but The Optimist does absolutely nothing to inspire the feelings I had prior to that errant elbow.

There are some good moments, for sure. But album opener Lost A Girl is the only cut on the entire thing that seems to combine upbeat, danceable songs with any recognisable human emotion. And I know NYPC’s entire schtick was being hugely cool and wholly disaffected, but I can’t help but think that the 80s-influenced game has moved on.

I just don’t know what to do with this album. You can’t really dance to it, you can’t rock out to it, and I don’t think it stands up to intense scrutiny. All that’s left is to stand up against a wall, move around in a non-committal fashion and exude an air of being too cool for the whole thing.

“Forget everything you thought you knew about NYPC”, screams the first line of their press release. I thought I knew that NYPC were sexy, exciting and, above all, fun. I’ve certainly forgotten that now.