Review Summary: Get in, we're going down-fucking-hill
The tower card
Depicts a tall spire set ablaze by a bolt of lighting
The scene of the tower is one of terror
It's unsettling because it shows that no matter the plans for ourselves
A divine act can completely uproot everything
It's a sign you must abandon what you've known before
(The old ways are no longer useful)
You must find a new set of beliefs to take their place
This urgent call to break free from old patterns and limitations and seek out a new identity is taken from ‘Tarot Interlude’ — a necessary breather right before the album’s curtain call. The preceding nine tracks all map out how it feels to navigate life in your early twenties in disarmingly honest terms. Anchored by mature, introspective writing and Mia Berrin’s captivating vocal work,
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, Pom Pom Squad’s sophomore album, is a triumph. For the most part.
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me is decidedly less punky and instantaneous than its predecessor; its embrace of pop isn’t as immediately hooky or captivating as
Death Of A Cheerleader’s indie-rock and angsty punk, hence why the singles that veer towards pop-rock —especially the punkier ‘Street Fighter’— emerge as the catchiest among this new crop of songs. Give it time, though;
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me reveals itself to be a deeply introspective and revealing record with ample replay value.
Songwriting does the heavy lifting for the album, no doubt about that;
Death Of A Cheerleader was already admirable (especially for a debut) in the way it explored its themes of love and isolation from the viewpoint of a young queer person of color in the music industry, but
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me is refreshingly cutting about searching for identity and making sense of your life as a newly minted adult. ‘Running From Myself’, the centerpiece of the record, will be immediately relatable to everyone: lines like "My defenses dull my senses / I don't stop to catch my breath / 'Cause my body moves itself like it's possessed" and “"I can't feel the moment when I'm in it / Only five years down the line" achingly convey how it feels to keep yourself distracted just so you don’t have to process your feelings. ‘Doll Song’, the band’s finest song to-date, is instrumentally dense, starting off as a quiet lullaby and slowly introducing huge drums, impeccable strings, music box sounds and a sample of ‘My Favorite Things’ in the bridge that shouldn’t work, but it does! And lyrically, it’s the climactic conclusion this album seems to want to reach; a rumination on how easy it is to find yourself in a manipulative situation (“I don't know how you made a doll out of me”) and how you owe it to yourself to get out of it (“At least when I'm lonely I know I'm the only one pulling my strings”).
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me is boundless when it comes to emotional release and lyrical ingeniousness and the vocal performances contribute to the effect, whether on ‘Street Fighter’’s shouty ad-libs and choruses, ‘Villain’’s whisper-singing in the verses and menacing tone in the chorus (a cross between Eilish’s ‘bad guy’ and Poppy’s ‘Anything Like Me’) or ‘Spinning’’s crystal-clear vocal work.
Production, which was
Death Of A Cheerleader’s strongest weapon, is bound to be the biggest head-scratcher here. Admittedly, after the opening trio of singles, the quality seesaws; aforementioned knock-outs like ‘Doll Song’ and ‘Running From Myself’ share space with tracks such as ‘Everybody’s Moving On’ and ‘Montauk’, which aim for dreamy but scan as inconsequential in their sound, being too airy and tepid to leave an impression (a shame, given that ‘Montauk’’s depictions of being in love are pretty and affectionate, culminating in a beautiful final verse). Like I mentioned before, the album’s trade of punk for alternative pop isn’t the best outfit they’ve worn thus far, but the experimentation is very much welcome, as they occasionally strike some gold (e.g. the hooks on the irresistible singles).
At a scant 28 minutes,
Mirror Starts Moving Without Me leaves a lot to be desired on the musical side of things during the first listen; despite implementing pop into their formula, there’s nothing as catchy as previous affairs like the punkier ‘Head Cheerleader’ and ‘Red With Love’ off their last record. That criticism aside, it may actually surpass their great debut, for me; just by its sheer emotional potency and intelligence.
