Death Of A Cheerleader. Pom Pom Squad

Pom Pom Squad released its debut album last week (at time of writing) and what a debut album it is. Nice, sleazy, punkrocking alternative rock music the band plays. Music that is decades old by now and sounds as if it was invented yesterday, by Pom Pom Squad.

The beginning, a little melody that goes up and down, up and down, reminded me immediately of a tune I could not get my head around, until it struck me. A song, who knows how old, 'Mr. Sandman', it was. In nothing does this intro give away what lies in waiting for me when the second songs truly opens Death Of A Cheerleader. The 52 seconds long 'Soundcheck' is not even what it promises. The instrumental song is totally detached from 'Head Cheerleader', except for the sound of feedbacking guitars near the end. Guitars and amps warming up the message seems to be.

It doesn't stop with this major surprise. Pom Pom Squad presents a few more little and bigger surprises throughout the album, little pieces of music that have more to do with the record collection of the four members' grandparents than their parents', let alone themselves. The intro to 'Crying' is in a 1950s musical/Doris Day style and is a ballad those grandparents may even appreciate if they evolved their musical tastes just a little through the decades.

With Death Of A Cheerleader the same happened to me as with 'Planet (i)', Squirrel Flower's new record, I wrote on yesterday, only vice versa. Listening closer that album was much harder than I thought it was. Death Of A Cheerleader has far softer parts than my first impression told me. It doesn't make it/them less good.

Pom Pom Squad is a band that started as singer/guitarist Mia Berrin's solo project in 2015. She moved to NYC and over the years formed the band Pom Pom Squad now is. Mari Alé Figeman plays bass, Shelby Keller drums and Alex Mercuri lead guitar. Together they released two EPs and a string of singles. Now there's an album.

The album holds one surprising cover, and certainly for a band releasing its first album in 2021, 'Crimson & Clover', the final hit of Tommy James & the Shondells from 1969. I remember a discjockey on Radio Veronica, Jan van Veen?, playing the record three times in a row, promising to play it five times if it made the top 3. All during my lunchbreak from primary school classes. For a band that, in my opinion, was never really taken seriously, they have four songs that still come by regularly, 'Hanky Panky', 'Mony Mony' and 'I Think We're Alone Now'. The latter two also in the form of huge cover hits. So here 'Crimson & Clover, cover Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, pops up again, showing it's a song with an eternity value.

With fourteen tracks in just 30 minutes, the album exhumes urgency. The number 14 is a bit misleading, as not all tracks are fully-fledged songs. Just start listening and you find out for yourself. The songs are true songs alright. 

Death Of A Cheerleader is an album that has an enormous pop streak. Mia Berrin is not afraid to show herself as a singer of sensitive pop songs, although they are coloured in a little more solid that in the past they ever would have been. Had the band covered 'I Think We're Alone Now' instead, no one would have thought of Tommy James, solely Tiffany, from the approach taken within a few songs.

In 'Shame Reactions' the other side of the band pops up again. Punkrock around the clock. Pom Pom Squad has two faces, definitely. One, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and one Tiffany, without the 80s disco beat. I have to admit, I like both faces. The two distinctions may put of some people though, because what does Pom Pom Squad truly stand for? A questions for purist in my opinion. With its first album the band is on quest, exploring what it comes across and trying to put its own stamp on what it finds. The findings are part 50s pop, let's call it pre-Lee Hazelwood Nancy Sinatra, like in the short tune 'This Couldn't Happen' and the reprise of "Mr. Sandman", called 'Be Good'. 60s Pop in a more modernised form and the hardrocking, punkrocking songs. All together it makes a diverse album showing a few sides of Pom Pom Squad, that may be too much for some. The mix rather works well with me.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Death Of A Cheerleader here:

https://pompomsquad.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-a-cheerleader

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g