A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.
If you don’t know The Radio Dept., think Pet Shop Boys meets Cocteau Twins. Icy synth riffs go hand in hand with the dream pop world created on Pet Grief. Is it too polished? Possibly. But it’s that sense of gliding with the music that gives the record its edge. It’s an ambient record where one song bleeds seamlessly into the next. I had to table it at first when I was first introduced to them. The Radio Dept. didn’t rock hard enough for me. But eventually my openness to dream pop emerged, starting with the title track.
“Pet Grief” doesn’t rock to be sure, it rolls. This is the pace and stance of the entire album where the title track serves as a microcosm of the greater world that The Radio Dept. creates inside our heads. The Pet Shop Boys’ influence on the band is uncanny with the various synth parts all reminiscent of Chris Lowe’s canon. Johan Duncanson’s vocals seem almost despondent, which works well on this track whether he meant it or not.
“I'll shut my mouth for you. Anything you want me to.”