We Were Girls Together. POM

POM impressed with a string of singles and an EP in the past two years and now impresses with its debut album. We Were Girls Together rings a loud bell for the band. Listening to it is a joy, singing along an irresistible option, dancing to the music mandatory. This band knows how to write, to arrange and record a great song.

POM is an Amsterdam band on an Rotterdam label. In music everything is possible. The five piece, Liza van As, Joy Kunst, Luc Siegers, Michael Joshua and Justin Dwarswaard, released its first single in 2019, called 'Down The Rabbit Hole'. That single was missed by this blog, but searching backwards, I've found posts since 2020, showing that this blog is a fan of the band.

The band calls its music loud and describes it as fuzzpop. It must be me but I have the inclination to call the band's music perfect pop. This band strives for perfection in its songs. All songs contain a lot of energy but always to underscore the perfection of the song. Yes, it's loud alright but like a band as The Beths, the loudness is part of the pop feel.

The opening chords on the guitar at the album's start are a statement of intent the band presents to the world. Not special as such, you will have heard opening chords like this many times before. There's no doubt however where We Were Girls Together is going to. POM will rock you, it says, and never relents from its promise. Note, 'A Burning House' is far from the best song on the album and already so nice.

With 'Together We Go' the band really starts to sore like a blinding light across the sky. "Whoa, oh yeah", alright. By then it's clear that POM is excellent at using dynamics in its songs. 'Together We Go' plays with intensity in a great way, paving the way for 'Exoskeleton', the even better single of earlier this year. If 'Together We Go' is Haley's comet,  'Exoskeleton' is the sun and moon in one. This song shines so bright. This song can compete with the best coming out of the rest of the world. Any band in this genre would die for a song like this.

From this moment onwards POM is on a roll. With a QOTSA like song, 'Red Dress', the band also finds its way into successful background vocals, adding even more to the mix. The album even grows some more and is building up the tension in a great way. And gets louder. The promise of noise is definitely delivered here.

What becomes more and more clear, are the nice arrangements the band has worked into the songs. Not just dynamics but also the little extras making a song more interesting to listen to, allowing for discoveries after many listening sessions. A guitar overdub, a vocal addition, bells, you will find them all over the place. The intensity goes up and up on this album, ending with a grand finale, indicating a very good new and ambitious band has released its debut album. See We Were Girls Together as a statement underscoring the ambitions for the future.

Over it all Liza van As sings with her voice that has a nice little edge to it. A hint a roughness that makes her a successful front woman. She is the icing on the cake called POM. With We Were Girls Together the band fully delivers on the promise of its singles and EP. The album is better than I'd hoped for and then some.

One question remains: Can the band deliver live? I hope to be able to report here in the coming weeks. POM is touring so go and check the band out!

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order We Were Girls Together here:

https://pomtheband.bandcamp.com/album/we-were-girls-together