Below The Surface

This is the album we have been waiting for; it finally proves that there is life and hope in the music industry yet. They have been labelled as "indie" since they started but this is just a lazy way of putting everybody inside a box as if we won't get the type of music without a label. Here the writing comes from the heart and not from the wallet, it has songs that everybody who has ever been in, or out of, love can empathise with. One moment it can be pure tenderness and the next track will have you out of your seat dancing round the room. When you listen to this it is obvious that all of the aspects have been collected properly, vocals, tune and bass all complimenting each other to provide the cracking songs that are the end result. We could do with more like this on the radio as everybody should get to hear it, but while Darius still exists it just seems a much hoped for dream. Make sure you tell your friends, and your granny to get a copy of this album.
Jon Cooper

Brain Love

The Lollies are a pop band. In their own words, a "sugary indie girl-pop band in London". They write slight, kitchen-sink type pop that sounds at once easily disposable and kinda classic, happy-dappy and barbed with cynicism. It's a good combination - half kitsched up girl-next-door pop (Office Romance - "Tuesday morning and who have I seen / It's my crush by the coffee machine") and half heartfelt fuck-you to lesser mortals ("We're all fakers, we're all poseurs / Don't make art we make hamburgers / you can rent me by the hour").

The Lollies namecheck Blur and The Dandy Warhols' "wry ironic pop" in their biography. The thing is, I've always thought The Dandy Warhols were more sarcastic that ironic. Just straight up cooler-than-thou drawling with the odd good single. The Lollies far outstrip either of these bands in the wit and wisdom of their lyrics, and in their fully-formed stylistic approach to writing. Also, Blur and The Dandy Warhols are so far up their own arses that you can barely see the soles of their shoes poking out. The Lollies seem resolutely determined not to act like music industry arseholes - in fact a few of their more cutting sharp-dart remarks are aimed in that direction.

Sometimes the twinkling glitter-glue DIY po-mo sweetness of it all can be a bit much. Just like real lollies. But then when you're not expecting it, you'll get a hunger-pang-like desire to put this on and, as The Happy Pig would say, "swing your girly locks".

So, the Taste of The Lollies is an acquired one. But with moments like the admirably frank "Big Massive Fuck-Off Attitude" the (Handsome Family-esque) beauty of "Everybody's Trash To Somebody Baby", 'Taste The Lollies' is an addictive proposition. Just watch out for those E-numbers.
by John Rogers

Careless Talk Costs Lives

Pop. Discuss. It's two completely different genres now, mutually uncomprehending, torn asunder by the conflict between brutish capitalism and twinkly po-mo irony. So, while the slugfaced castrati of Westlife chow down on corporate porksword, the like of The Lollies whip out the fluorescent markers to create that paradoxical product, pop that can never be popular. Shangri-Las, Kenickie, Rezillos, B-52's, all present and correct, frugging in white PVC Coureges boots to that luvverly Farfisa boogie beat. But it's not all Babycham bubbles up your cute little nose - they can deploy Memphis soul riffs ('Goldcrush') or aching country waltz dynamics ('Everybody's Trash To Somebody Baby') at the drop of a silly hat. This will have currency and resonance when Gummo from Westlife is back working in the out-of-town B&Q that is his spiritual home.
Tim Footman

deo2.com

The Lollies are as jolly as a summer’s day

When you glance at the release schedules all you can see is – compilations and few ‘Pop Idols’. Luckily there is an alternative in indie labels issuing newies to provide us with goodies. The Lollies’ ‘Taste’ is a great example of a fresh, jolly and exuberant album. (The best soda with it should be Mountain Dew!)

The Lollies are a trio of two girls and a boy, two Canucks and a Yank, ex-pats who are based in London. The biog states that bassist/singer Jane Mountain met New York guitarist/singer Kate St. Clare and they discovered love of 60s girl groups (will get back to this) that led to recruiting drummer Matthew Lazowski and forming The Lollies.

Their sonic world is a jangly, punky rock, raw and functionally dilettante-ish that at times recalls feathery approach of Young Marble Giants but can also kick in the best Go-Go’s tradition or The Breeders. (Check out the Ramonesque, ‘Way Too Special’.) That’s why the “60s girl groups” doesn’t sound right, although there are few instances of harmonising á la The Crystals: there were not many female artists in the decade pop mythologized and those who made it were puppets-on-strings of record moguls. It is more logical considering groups of the late 1970s – Sioxsie and the Banshees (in their poppier moments) or The Rezillos; perhaps even the ‘80s, B-52’s for instance.

There is a faux-country feel on ‘Goldrush’ about some hunky cowboy in Oxfordshire (pardon me?) that confirms this a fair ‘ladyfest’ album. Boyfriends figure greatly in the lyrics, ‘Imaginary Boyfriend’, ‘Selfish Boy’, ‘Nearly Flawless, but then – isn’t love the essence of living? (And all sistas know that men are rats and there are so many scores to settle!) There is surf-themed ‘Jonestown Mascara’, a touch of Hawaiian guitar and Farfisa organ somewhere else and waltz on the closing ‘Everybody’s Trash To Somebody Baby’. Variety, baby! Or, two…

And yet, the most delightful aspect of the album is the union of musical simplicity with some very witty lyrics, being almost like ‘observational comedy’ of the Seinfeld-type. From the opening ‘Flavah Of The Month’, about selling your soul for success (or commercials, the same difference), via ‘Office Romance’ (Bridget Jones-like life, with a boss-shag, in 2-plus minutes) and minimally-vocalized ‘Like Wow, Groovy’ to “chase groovy ghosts through haunted houses to”, we are informed.

Bonus track, ‘Happy’, is an example of studio tomfoolery and shows that the band can be very entertaining even when they discard instruments. When girls front bands they really do not observe any rules males so readily obey and thus make albums that are freer, more spirited and delight of sheer candidness.

The band’s had a couple of singles out and songs included on several compilations but ‘Taste’ should establish them as the true… er, taste setters. If you were planning to buy U2 compilation next Monday, divert your money into The Lollies and be happy! Happier! A sandbag!

9/10
SaschaS

Drowned In Sound

Helen Love wannabes produce yawnsome debut

Two-thirds Canadian and one-third American, The Lollies formed in 1999 to apparently pay homage to all-girl groups such as Kenickie. And a crap version of Sleater Kinney is the result. Taste leaves you with the realisation that there's only so many times one can recreate that sugary half-speaking, half-singing yankee drawl before it all starts getting a bit boring.

Amidst a blur of fuzzbox and sickly synth-pop 'Way Too Special' promises to feature guitarist St. Claire's 'most blistering solo yet!' Frankly there's more exciting fretwork to be heard from a fingerless baboon wearing oven gloves.

Lollies. A treat every so often but bad in excess. And you stopped liking them when you reached the age of nine.
Ellen Forster, clearly a Chilli Peppers-loving Babboon typing in oven gloves

No Ripcord

Like this review was ever going to be anything but positive. The Coral's self-titled effort may have caught the eye of the critics but when it comes to the finest debut album of 2002, the Lollies unreservedly get my crooked grin of approval.

Where to start? Opening track Flavour Of The Week berates the current tread of "selling out" in indie bands. The point being, if you are going to do it, do it properly: "It's part of our masterplan/to sip champagne on a yacht like Duran Duran" and whatever can they mean by "Fuck the charts, we'll make millions/selling mobile phones to the new bohemians"? 2001 single Channel Heaven also makes a welcome appearance. An NME review said that it would be loved by "long haired indie boys who read French poetry and think football ghastly". Well, I ain't got long hair, ain't ever read French poetry and love Football with a passion bordering on mental illness. I still think it's a brilliant song, so join me in waving two fingers to press dinosaurs.

The key to everything is that while one minute they have you crying into your beer, the next they'll have you jumping around spilling said beer all over your mate/significant other/psychopathic stranger. The best example of the former is Imaginary Boyfriend ("If I had a dollar for every time you say/sorry but I don't think about you that way"), the sound of the Smiths if Morrissey had been born XX. For the latter; try Office Romance - Da Do Ron Ron mashed together with the modern complexities of meeting "the corporate Clark Gable" - or Jonestown Mascara, the best song ever to include the word "peroxide". Really. I could go on. I could mention killer horn riffs, wild west pianos and a bonus track that sounds like New Order in some alternative dimension. But all I really need to say is: there's not a duff track here. Go on, you don't need to take yourself that seriously all the time.

Kudos also for 2002's most well observed line: "Kissing leads to sex/like pot leads to heroin". Sweetness and bitterness aren't always so far apart. 9/10
Reviewed By Peter Mattinson

Miuzik

The Lollies - Taste The Lollies - Album

The Lollies' debut album. Was about bloody time, too! The Lollies are a girlpowered (well, 'mainly female', as a London listings editor once suggested. They do have a boy on board as their drummer, after all) London-based indie guitar pop outfit. As the name suggests, they sound sugarcoated at times and not half as angry and 'kill all men' motivated as other bands who have eg. played Ladyfest. The Lollies have NICE guitars, NICE keyboards and tons and tons of catchy tunes on board. Still, they speak their mind, anyway. You go girls (and the boy, of course)!

'Taste The Lollies' feels like a Best Of, and you'll soon find various live favourites on there (if you've never seen them live, then what the hell are you waiting for!): there's the tongue-in-cheek 'Office Romance' (pretty self-explanatory, really. Think 'shagging' and 'copy machine'), the brilliant 'Call The Girls' ... There don't seem to be any bad tracks on here, godammit! It's all very nice and sounds strangely summery. But why is the best track, 'Jonestown Mascara' almost last?

Miuzik Rating: MMMMM
by Julia Vergho

Tasty Zine

The Lollies have a problem. They don't want to be called twee. They want to unleash the rock beast that they thing lurks inside them. Apart from the drummer, Matthew, who likes The Lucksmiths... but he gets no say in things anyway. Possibly.

But I have a problem with The Lollies having a problem, for, on the evidence of 'Taste', this trio of North Americans are a great big effervescent POP! band.

Not that they'd like to admit to this of course, and whilst they're penning little slabs of vitriol such as opener, 'Flavah of the Week' - a stab at those who'll sell their arse for a couple of quid - they'll keep these rock pretensions. But even 'Flavah of the Week' is where Slayer meets the Shangri-Las, so I win on that one.

And by putting two such wonderfully melancholic pieces such as 'Imaginary Boyfriend' and still my favourite, 'Channel Heaven' together they'll have this ringing in their ears, I'll make sure of that.

Because you see this is a POP album. It deals with popular music set to popular themes. Y'know the usual stuff like shagging your boss, boys in make-up, and going out. Stuff that we're all used to, all take for granted, but never really think that deeply about. Well, I don't think about shagging boss at all, he's just not my type, but you know what I mean.

This is what all the best pop bands have done. Fuck Radiohead. Fuck Muse. Fuck The White Stripes. And fuck the Strokes. They write about shite. No two ways about it. All the best bands have written about things that ordinary people like, hate, but above all, experience. From The Kinks through the Smiths, and hell, yeah to the Lollies! All three bands share a common heritage in that they have/had the ability and downright cheek to write about things other people won't. There's nothing abstract about the Lollies, thank god. And therefore 'Big Massive Fuck Off Attitude' ain't that difficult to work out, but that's because it's such a great song.

Why Radiohead whine on about...well, whatever they whine on about, is beyond me. The Lollies have shown with 'Taste' that all you need for classic pop music is a head full of life and a few instruments. It really is that simple.
Sam Tasty

Q

'60S GIRL GROUP APING CANDY ROCK TRIO
**
A love of The Shangri-Las and three years spent sharpening their tongues on the fringes of London's indie scene is the genesis of this wry debut. The US/Canadian band mix choppy guitars, twin-girl vocals with sub-Blur-pop. Pity the songs sound more like out-takes from Grease than an arch response to contemporary pop.
Crispin Parry

Uncut

The Lollies - Taste (Fortune & Glory)
***
Multi-national quartet give it some serious stick

They may boast a male drummer, but The Lollies - two Canadians, a New Yorker and an Essex babe - are girl-group descendants. Taste is pure, sherbert-dipped Sex In The City sass, where The Waitresses meet The Ronettes and the fuzz-pop snap of Blondie shares lippy with Elastica

It's witty stuff, encompassing boardroom romps - the hilarious "Office Romance" - hip fakers, unattainable boys and the perils of peroxide. It might wear thin towards the end, but reverse out the chromosomes and you have Supergrass in slingbacks.
Rob Hughes