Slumber Party - 3

If I had to sum up Slumber Party’s new record, 3, into two words, they would be “vague excitement.” I’m having trouble pin pointing exactly what it is that’s so refreshing about this album. Even from the inside booklet sleeve, depicting the four girls with pistols aimed at a giant heart, you can tell that there is something interesting beyond its retrospective style and distant-echoey production; Slumber Party is sort of a throwback to 60's psychedelic-girl-rock, just replacing the sex and drugs with cleverness. When I listen to this album, I feel like I’m part of a secret clubhouse of dissent youngsters who seek a sort of anti-pop rebellion. It’s very friendly to those with an open-mind, but still very out of place in regards to the current trends in music (which is a good thing); it makes for a nice polar opposite of the two-and-a-half-minute attention span, network-TV generation. Perhaps it’s Slumber Party’s contradiction to modern music that gives it an edge. Like some albums by Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star, Slumber Party is loaded with lightheaded feelings and simple instrumentation. It has alluring harmonies, delicate guitar rhythms, and a few electronic elements that are sometimes very traditional and other times experimental. I enjoy the more bizarre songs, those that have drum machines, organs, and less traditional song structure, because they seem to personalize the bands style and break them from the obvious 60's girl-group inspiration. 3, a boring title for a third album, has a happy-gloominess to it, ambiguously indistinct from start to end. The tone is upbeat but the lyrics signify a more complex, mysterious, dark meaning. The more original style songs keep me interested, but the vintage tunes keep me at a distance. Thus, I find the record to be “vaguely exciting.” [www.slumberpartydetroit.com]