PC Music for those of you who stay clear from electronic music is A London based Record label, headed by A.G. Cook. Over the last few years PC Music has gotten quite a bit of exposure due to the success of acts like Cook, SOPHIE (who I just can't get enough of), as well as Hannah Diamond and Danny L Harle. Since then, they've also produced some brilliant stuff for pop artists like Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen. However, their style is absolutely NOT for everyone though, as almost all of PC Music's acts focus around Chipmunk'ed vocals, heavy bass, and chaotic yet playful synths. That being said, I've always been a HUGE advocate for the label, and I always give a listen to whatever they're doing. However, their first compilation which dropped last year was a little underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, Thy Slaughter's "Bronze", Danny L Harle's "In My Dreams" and other tracks on their were exactly what I was looking for. But so many styles of PC Music's oddball approach to pop clashing one track after another to me just didn't really suit well with me. However, since then PC Music has gotten bigger than ever, and Danny L Harle's early single from this new compilation "Super Natural (Featuring Carly Rae Jepsen)" is easily one of the best pop tracks I've heard all year. So lets dive into PC Music's second compilation.
(P C Music associate and one of my favorites SOPHIE)
This compilation starts with “Fade Away” from P C Music fave Hannah Diamond. Now for the most part, I feel like Hannah’s music is where it people begin listening to P C Music, and promptly turn it off. And you know to an extent I do understand where people are coming from with that, Hannah is a repeat offended of chipmunk vocals and an overtly bubblegum sound that just might be too much for people. “Fade Away” however is a little different for Hannah, and if you’ve listened to her stuff in the past just to get turned off, I really think you may want to listen to this one. We start off with some super chilly synths which you could probably expect, but bizarrely enough when Hannah comes in she doesn’t sound nearly as drowned in vocal effects as she usually does. It’s refreshing to hear Hannah in her more natural state, her vocals come off quite nicely here to say the very least. Instantly, it makes the music of P C Music more human sounding and less synthetic, not to mention in the last year or so the production on these tracks have sky-rocketed. It’s still quirky and fun, but at the same time it’s sounds a little less childish and certainly less obnoxious. Hannah here as the track goes on seriously gets tons of time to show off her vocals, when was the last time you could say that about a P C Music Track. No, it’s still not going to be for everyone, there are still glitchy production tricks here and bubblegum pop there. But I for one find it absolutely adorable and catchy. Here we are one track into this compilation and I already have more to say then the last compilation. We still aren’t dealing with any club bangers, no this is pop for a different crowd altogether, but it’s just as catchy. To be honest, I can’t get over how warm and inviting “Fade Away” is. I mean when you think of P C Music, it’s so easy to just kind’ve throw them in with a lot of other modern dance or electronica acts. But Hannah here is proving that wrong, with a legitimately heartfelt performance. Some of the later vocals are a little more on the obnoxious side, but Hannah recovers, making for a nice start to this comp. Hannah Diamond isn’t done with us yet though. Later on in the track list we have “Hi”, which let me just say I love way too much. When I think about it, so much of “Hi” is everything I hate about modern pop and dance music, but Hannah makes it work wonderfully. Interestingly enough, her vocals here are far less inviting then they were earlier, hell she barely sounds human here. Hannah here, outside of the chorus, sounds so robotic, it almost sounds like she got Siri to recite “Hi” for her. There really isn’t that much to the beat either, compared to everything else P C Music has done this is ridiculously minimal. Besides that, “Hi” is a home run for Hannah. Anyone whose ever tried online dating can seriously relate to the entire track, and the coldness of the beat and atmosphere actually makes for a really huge statement. On top of all of that, Hannah’s performance is beyond adorable, I seriously want to just go and give her a big ol’ hug listening to this. Like I said earlier, this sure as hell isn’t going to be for everyone, and listening to this may turn you off to P C Music altogether, but I seriously can’t help eating all of this up. Earlier in the compilation, EASYFUN and Noonie Bao (whose written brilliant tunes for my girls Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen) bring us “Monopoly”. Right off the bat, THIS is much of what people expect to hear when they think of P C Music. The rhythms are bouncing all over the place and synths are just as wild, but damn is it fun. The vocals that come in soon after are strictly bubblegum pop, there’s a lot of that here to be honest. “Monopoly” is far less personal and more robotic and synthetic sounding, but it sticks with you and doesn’t let go. I would even say any big fan of J-Pop will seriously dig this and should check it out ASAP. And once again, the production here is HUGE sounding, especially that much more bass driven sound at the end of the track. But as we go deeper into this compilation, this gets much more into love it or hate it territory. Take for example felicita’s “a new family”. This track starts off with the least inviting synths of the entire album so far. As it picks up, “a new family” almost sounds like something Crystal Castles would have done a few years back. But for me, what really makes this track enjoyable are these bizarre guttural screams popping in and out. They’re so over the top and ridiculous that I can’t help but love it, and they work great against the much darker atmosphere of this track. As “a new family” goes on, it seriously begins to pick up, almost sounding like something off of a video game soundtrack (picture a really dark level on Sonic The Hedgehog for Dreamcast, absolutely brilliant). There’s some real strong tension being built up as the song continues, and the inclusion of children's voices towards the end does amazingly good and bad things. The whispering during the verses makes for some seriously dark stuff, but their “rap” verse that follows clashes horribly and takes tons away from this one. Overall it’s still pretty darn good.
Now that we’re warmed up, lets talk about my boy Danny L. Harle. This guy is seriously zooming up the ranks in P C Music, mostly due to the success of this single here, “Super Natural”, featuring Carly Rae Jepsen (who if you haven’t listened to “Emotion” and “Emotion Side B” yet, stop right now and go do that, they’re both near flawless pop albums). “Super Natural” has some of the boldest sounding production yet from P C Music, it ALMOST sounds like it could be a radio smash. Almost. Here and there you’re going to still find those production quirks from Danny that make this a P C Music track. Carly’s performance here is just as innocent and sweet as she’s been known for in her last few albums. What’s most impressive here is the chemistry between P C Music and Carly Rae. Her sweet, girl-next-door image and their quirky production were seriously made for each other. And if the rumors are true, and SOPHIE is going to be taking care of some of the production on Carly’s next project, I’m sold. Carly’s huge vocals soaring over these huge blasts of synth and bass are chilling, in every way this is a seriously huge pop song. Danny L Harle’s production is a little different to say the least from the rest of the P C Music clan. His production often comes off as a little more pop sounding, but in an adventurous and fun way. “Super Natural” may be my favorite pop song of the year, just saying. Danny isn’t done with us yet, later on he serves up “Broken Flowers”. The first thing you’re going to notice about this one, is that it’s certainly less pop sounding. No this one sounds like a 90’s dance track, if it wasn’t for the more modern production I’d be certain that I stumbled upon my “A Night At The Roxbury” soundtrack. To be honest though, that’s not a bad thing, Danny pulls it off really well, “Broken Flowers” ends up coming off like a B-Side to Diclosure’s “Settle” album. The vocals are a little on the repetitive side, but the serious grooves on this one pick up major slack. But it’s just upsetting to hear these super repetitive vocals when Carly did such a wonderful job earlier. For a dance track though, there’s still plenty to like about this. Like I said, I seriously wish Danny got another vocal guest for this one, but as a dance tune this gets a check in my book. Not to mention, the last 40 seconds or so of “Broken Flowers” DOES get seriously intense. What the biggest shame about this compilation is though, is the serious lack of character the rest of it has. Take for example GFOTY’s “Poison”. Now, GFOTY (which stands for Girlfriend Of The Year) had two tracks on the first PC Music Compilation, and those two tracks happened to be my least favorite there. So going into “Poison” I had seriously low standards. And what do you know, right from the intro of this one it doesn’t even sound adventurous, “Poison” just sounds ugly. It’s super tinny sounding, and slightly industrial which I can deal with and all, but outside of that there’s nothing to report. The vocals are some of the most obnoxious here by far, and everything else about “Poison” is just unappealing. Eventually, the vocals do clean up a bit and get a little catchier. But at the end of the day all “Poison” does is end a seriously strong streak of great tracks here. And even worse, “Poison” almost comes off as…..dubstep *shivers*.
I think this compilation has a ton of potential, and could have really been one of my favorites on the year. But heres my issue, P C Music should really stop making compilations at this point. There are a few of their artists such as SOPHIE, Hannah Diamond, Danny L Harle, and A G Cook that I really feel like I’m getting to know the style of. And in that case, these compilations are fantastic. But the problem comes from the rest of the compilation. They slap on about 5 or 6 other artists that only get about 2-3 minutes of time on the compilation. What P C Music should really be doing at this point is taking these artists and helping them record EP’s to get their name out a little more. For example, I know A G Cook’s style, and hearing him on this EP made me enjoy his music even more. “Superstar”, call me crazy, is one of the first time I’ve really heard his singing. I may have missed a track of his or two over the years, but yea this is my first outing with his vocals. To be honest though, they come off pretty solid, and blend with his production quite well. At its core, “Superstar” like a few other tracks here comes off as very human sounding, and emotionally stable to say the least. A lot of people are going to overlook this as another radio dance hit, which is fine, it has tons of the same elements as one to be honest. But I still really enjoy it, even though some of these lyrics are painfully cheesy, for the most part it does remain heartfelt at least. The quirky production and vocal effects that pop up from time to time give it that extra P C Music flair. My only real issue is, it seriously didn’t need to be almost 5 minutes long, everything here easily could have built up quicker. It’s still a really solid track though, mostly because it lets A G Cook really show off his work. Which is a whole lot more than I can say about the final two tracks on this compilation. First we have “Only You” by Chris Lee. My first question about this one is, who the hell are you sir? My second question is, who the hell approved this track? This doesn’t even come off as a P C Music track, this comes off as a no name DJ Cut. “Only You” is by far the lowest point on this compilation, I seriously feel like I accidentally came upon some no name EDM station on satellite radio. Then there’s the vocals which seriously I couldn’t pick out of a lineup if my life depended on it. Even when the heavier, bass heavy production comes in towards the end it picks up little to no slack. I’m just gonna move on. Finally we “IDL” by Life Sim, another P C Music artist who I’m seriously not aware of. This one thankfully doesn’t come off nearly as bad. Right off the bat, “IDL” is much more adventurous and fun sounding. And while this track has a seriously slow start, the occasional blasts of bass keep this one super interesting. However, “IDL” like I said is slow, and patience testing to say the least. It builds nicely though, and has enough production quirks to keep you plenty interested. But at the same time, it’s nothing that ear grabbing either, and then it just kinda ends. Like I said, at this point P C Music have their name out there, their seriously need to start working on EP’s and solo albums. This is still a solid compilation overall though, and much more memorable than the last.
Rating: 7.4/10
Give A Listen To: “Super Natural”, “Hi”, “Superstar”, Monopoly
Overall Thoughts: Well for one thing, this compilation is seriously much more memorable than its predecessor. The first P C Music compilation had so many clashes of styles that most of the time it came off more ugly than progressive or ambitious. This compilation though really helps us get to know some of the artists that have grown to be P C Music's heavy hitters, such as Hannah Diamond and Danny L Harle. On the other hand, it leaves lesser known artists on the P C Music label to try desperately here to get noticed, most of the time it comes off pretty ugly. This is a solid compilation as far as I'm concerned, but I don't want another. I want P C Music to seriously start putting out some studio album's I can dive into already, their names are already plenty out there.