Drama

Album review

Montt Mardié is the solo creation of Swedish '80s music obsessive David Pagmar, and Drama is his debut album. From the corny synths, machine-driven Northern soul drumbeats, out of control falsetto vocals, and completely fake-sounding production to the sticky-sweet lead vocals that are delivered with a teenager's sense of distorted reality, the record is a tribute to the some of the best pure pop music of the '80s like Wham! ("Changed [A Sailor's Plea]"), Haircut 100 ("Modesty Blaise"), Aztec Camera ("How to Kill a Mockingbird"), and the Lilac Time ("Bag of Marbles," "Come on Eileen"). Pagmar doesn't merely ape the sounds of the era, though -- he totally inhabits them, and instead of sounding like a tired pastiche, Drama actually sounds like a hidden gem from the era itself. A track like "High School Drama," with its killer hooks, amazingly high vocals, and endearingly silly spoken interlude, could have easily fit into the playlist on a new wave station back in 1986 (and the video would look at home on VH1 Classic today). Best of all, you don't have to be an '80s obsessive to get into the record -- anybody with an appreciation for glittering pop tunes with an off-kilter sensibility should find plenty to love about Drama. It isn't a million miles away from what bands like the Scissor Sisters or even the Darkness accomplish. Take the music of the past, perfect it, and twist it. Too bad Montt Mardié won't get the exposure those two bands got. Also too bad that people will be deprived of such an incredible pop-with-a-capital-P record.

© Tim Sendra /TiVo