Review: Pujol – Kisses (EP)

Pujol
Kisses EP

Bartertown Co-op
Street: 11.27
Pujol = Davie Byrne + Weezer

After the triumph of his sophomore offering Kludge, Daniel Pujol has readied another eclectic and snappily varied EP, just in time for Record Store Day’s Black Friday 2015. Boasting a generous—for an EP—eight tracks (and highlighted by the irresistibly zany single “Sleepy Doni,”) opener “Gibbons Awoken” recalls Vince Clarke‘s manic vocal looping on Yazoo‘s “I Before E Except After C,” but adds interesting backing music and primitive vocal distortion for an intriguing twist. Presented like a semi-political, semi-social question about the state of our society, tracks like “Funky Magus” features a litany of abstract thoughts presented as spoken-word, but over a great backbeat. Pujol‘s great strength of creating catchy punk-rock like choruses remains intact (“Rock and Roll Huey Long,” “Designer Feelings,” “Only Like”) and while an EP is sometimes viewed as a stop-gap between albums, a good one, like this, is simply enjoyable. –Dean O Hillis