Pelicanopolis - Made You This

Pelicanpolis

Made You This
self-released; 2014

3.6 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

What does a punk rocker do when he realizes he isn’t a punk? Well besides having an existential crisis starting an instrumental-rich pop group might be a good way to go. 

This is in fact what happened to Gren Coffee in 2013. Originally a drummer Coffee took to guitar and songwriting in 2012 and recruited a number of liked-minded musicians to form Pelicanopois. They recently released an impressive five-song album Made You This, which displays Coffee’s innate gifts for songwriting. The music Pelicanopolis makes fits comfortably under the umbrella of indie pop. The combination of Coffee’s voice with the mostly clean guitars makes the music hard to justify as rock but is also a plausible argument. 

“JCRBN” is the opener and begins with a guitar, hi-hat and vocal harmonies. As it progresses the intensity picks up and hits a high point with the repetitive vocal parts toward the end of the song.

It is a decently written song and my first thoughts were that listeners would have an ambivalent relationship with Coffee’s voice. It’s not a voice that will immediately jump out to you as someone who will be winning any singing competition but it should grow on you as the album progresses.

“Leaving Port Townsend” is a solid pop song that follows an interesting lyrical narrative. Coffee tells somewhat of a story but inserts enough poetic lines that leave the meaning ambiguous. The highlight of the EP is arguably the closer entitled “Two Weeks After.” Coffee delivers one of his most inspired vocal performances and the band moderately rocks out. 

Made You This is a solid start that contains a number of songs that showcased the chemistry of the band as well as their individual creative and technical talents. Not every song resonated with me but it was a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

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