by Patrick Pilch (@pratprilch)
Mo Troper songs sound like the best part of your favorite song. Lean cuts. No skin or gizzards on these ditties, all meat. On MTV, Troper trims the fat off pop tunes that’ll have you lining up for seconds. Songs right there for the taking. As Bandcamp user kaj reports on Troper’s 2020 record Natural Beauty, “Beatles but good.” Take a bite; tastes just like chicken!
Every time I listen to a Mo Troper record for the first time, I like every other song (“I'm the King of Rock and Roll,” “I Fall Into Her Arms”). Then I listen to MTV again and I understand how much I love songs like “Play Dumb” and “Across the USA.” Then there are a couple I’m stuck on, so I listen to “The Only Living Goy in New York” a couple times and I think, gee, we’re all the only living goy in New York, waiting for a cream cheese bagel with all our sorry embarrassment.
While lean is the name of the game, MTV finds Troper tinkering with more “parts.” My favorite song is “Power Pop Chat.” It’s the most involved verse on the record: barbed guitars and cutting percussion, paired with arguably its most straightforward chorus despite Troper’s delightfully obscured vocals.
Later, Mo Troper packs a lo-fi punch with “Royal Jelly,” a prime example of the scuzzier recording approach he’s cozied up to since last year’s Dilettante. The track harkens back to the late noughties noise pop movement with thick chugs and blown out hooks, sugar slime oozing out the sparked speakers. “Final Lap” is a total successor to “Back to Saturn X,” but instead of a radio dial it’s a Portastudio pitch shift knob. Humuna humuna humuna hot dog!
To me, that’s what MTV is all about: assorted, profound compacted mysteries (blown out rock n roll) delivered in a convenient tube (an incredible power pop album). Talk about a TV dinner! No jingle shortage here on MTV. Troper’s got it goin on, tune in!