Synth-driven power-poppers Autogramm just released their latest LP Music That Humans Can Play. Their first album in over two years was released on vinyl and digital formats worldwide on November 17th on Stomp Records (and Beluga Records EU).
With Music That Humans Can Play you get the sense that Autogramm is confidently locked into a groove. Not that their two earlier releases were flawed, far from it, there is just an organic cohesiveness to the 10 tracks here. Listening to their back catalog, Autogramm has no trouble crafting immediately accessible, infectious synth power pop, and on this album the tunes are a perfect mix of the simple power pop of 2018’s What R U Waiting 4? and the new wave of 2021’s No Rules. Of course, you’ll still get the influences – The Cars, Gary Numan, Devo, 20/20, The Dickies, and contemporaries like The Sounds or even Metric.
The lead-off track Born Losers pulses like an 80s anthem with a touch of INXS and The Cars. Right away you know the hooks will sink deep. Autogramm cooks in the same kitchen as The Tubeway Army, melding synths with rock and pop and the second track WannaBe is as hooky as it gets for a song with a repetitive chorus sung over an electronic dirge. Most heavily feature keyboards, like the Devo-esque Why We Dance, the Ramones bop of Plastic Punks, and the swirling garage punk of Westbound. But interspersed there are a couple of perfect power pop jewels like Hey Alfie featuring some 70s era harmonies, and the 20/20 tinged Yesterday.
The band members are: Jiffy Marx of Brooklyn’s Hard Drugs, Vancouver’s Night Court, and Blood Meridian; CC Voltage of Berlin’s Dysnea Boys, London’s Loyalties, and Vancouver’s Black Halos and Spitfires; Lars Von Seattle of Bread & Butter and The Catheters; The Silo of Vancouver’s Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Destroyer and more recently, Chicago’s Spun Out.
