Hi, everyone. Bodhany Teatano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new AG Cook album, Britpop.

Here we have the newest full-length LP from songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, DJ - he does it all - Alexander Guy Cook or AG Cook, who put out this new record here back in May, but it is a bit of a lengthy experience with three disks and over 90 minutes of material, so it's taken me a minute to work through it.

I hope you're at least somewhat familiar with AG's work at this point, especially considering how closely he worked with CharlieXCX on her latest LP, Brat, which I gave a 10. What are you doing with your life If you haven't heard this record yet? get on the Bratwave. Bratwave. Bratwave. Bratwave. Bratwave.

Ag and the PC Music label, broadly, have been pretty essential and masterminding this bright, shiny, new hyper wave of pop music. And though it's typically AG's collaborations with other artists that tend to garner him the most attention, he's also regularly been releasing solo material as well. Although I would say up until this point, I'm yet to really love any of his solo releases.

It's hard not to feel like on some level that they're just a bit of a reprieve from the work he tends to do with other artists or or an outlet where he can more freely create and experiment. This, I think, was especially true of his 7G record he dropped back in 2020, which featured seven different disks of material and 50 more minutes of run time than what we're getting on Britpop. Each disk of that album, respectively, had a different songwriting mode or instrumental focus to it.

I think Britpop here works in a similar way, though each section of the album isn't quite as hyper specific. Each of the three disks most definitely have their own distinct flavor to them, though. The first part of this record, Disk One, is pretty much a straight run of the bright, peppy, pop, and dance-leaning electronics that AG is known for, but really stretching the limits of it to a degree, given that he has more free reign to do whatever since it's his solo record here.

Case in point, the opening track, "Silver Thread Golden Needle", because it takes a lot of balls to start your already very long album with a 10-minute cut. But AG does it, and this track is ambitious but also difficult to describe to an extent. It's like a techno odyssey in a way, but it's loaded with all of those chirpy vocal samples and synthesized tones that AG tends to favor. Is it the right sound palette for this thing? That's a little up for debate, especially since I think a lot of the sounds are too jarring for the vibe of this track to be all that immersive. And the structure of this very massive song, can, at points, be a little thankless, given that there's not a whole lot of momentum being carried over from one change to the next.

We have a strong contrast, though, moving on to the title track of the record, which features some chopped up vocals from Charlie XCX. It's not bad, but all in all, it feels like a streamlined Brat cut or something like that. I think the momentum on the record and experimental fun picks up on the track "You Know Me", which does have a harsh intro, but eventually settles into this jittery quaint instrumental electro pop with lots of fluttery quick synth runs that are just like ear candy, some catchy chipmunk vocal chops to a grand psychedelic finish. The track is a multi-phased piece of pure bliss.

Then "Prismatic" keeps the energy high with a lot of intensity on the percussion side of things. There's all these sporadic snare hits from front to back on the track that sound like popcorn kern going off. And this track makes for one of a few moments on the record that really shows how much influence AG takes away from various classic IDM artists like Aphex Twin, for example.

I could take or leave "Crescent", which to my ears sounds like the music that would play in the background of some SEGA Genesis racing game - a beach level. But "Heartache" is a pretty powerful and heartwarming single to the record with a lot of jittery, ever evolving and changing dance groups and some very simple chopped up vocal mantras on top ("Give me your heart, give me your heartache"). It's not too overly complicated, but still hits in a way that has a hard emotional impact. The remainder of the disk checks a lot of the usual boxes that you would expect, but structurally and instrumentally, they feel like they need something, a vocal, a drop, a payoff.

The second disk on the record sees AG flexing more of his singer-songwriter muscles with more singing as well as guitar-led tracks. And this direction for me from AG has been a mixed bag in the past, especially considering that vocals aren't necessarily his strong suit. But for sure, the song structures, the melodies, and lyrics are most certainly there.

I would actually say this disk is where some of the album's most emotionally impactful material turns up. There's "Serenade", which is not one of my favorite cuts here, as I think it starts a lot stronger than it finishes. But this song is an interesting change of pace for AG because it's cool to hear him present the vocals and the guitars in a way that just sounds so organic and and natural. Compared that to a record like Apple, which was also flirting with a singer-songwriter direction, but everything felt so chopped up and artificial intentionally. So he's really letting it ride out here in a way that just feels really intimate which I think only enhances tracks like "Nice to Meet You", which I think has a lot more meat on the bone structurally, melodically, lyrically. It's a fuzzy, somber piece of digitized slacker rock. There's a lot of surprisingly poetic bars to be had across the track and some really heavy and hard-hitting whaling harmonized guitar solos on the back-end, too.

Other highlights in this second disk include the track "Greatly", which I think thematically and instrumentally scratches a lot of the same itches as "Nice to Meet You", but digs into these themes and feelings even further, and it's an even stronger listen as a result. Meanwhile, "Bewitched" feels almost like a weird grunge moment on the record. There's definitely some pockets of this track vocally and riff-wise that I feel like AG is borrowing from Smashing Pumpkins a bit. The hooks are slick as well. I just feel like the track is missing some beef on the drum end, which I think really would have made this thing work fully. Then beyond that, the outro, which features these garbled, stuttering, glitchy walls of guitar, that's really not quite working for me. It just feels way too grading to sit through.

Meanwhile, the final song on this disk is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It's the song "Without", which is very obviously a tribute to the late SOPHIE, who was a very close friend and collaborator of AG's. And this whole thing is set to some blaring lo-fi guitar chords, beautiful changes, touching lyrics about missing her presence, having a difficult time letting go. And the entire track ends off with this really sharp interpolation of the vocal lines and lyrics from the track "BIPP". Classic SOPHIE Banger there ("I can make you feel better!").

The last section of the record is what I guess I would like to call the Misc. Disk, as it's a little bit of everything. It feels like the tracks that were too moody and abstract to land anywhere else ended up here. For sure, there are some interesting spots to be had and heard, like the grand, spacious, cinematic percussion and synths all over the track "Soulbreaker", or the dissonant, melty drones that make "Butterfly Craft". The intense and explosive "WWW" is also another moment on the record, especially toward the end, that feels like we're getting a lot of classic IDM nods. Meanwhile, the final track on the disk is the second longest on the album. And while it may not be a favorite here, I will say it's a lot more cohesive than the opener in terms of maintaining a consistent energy across its length. I also love the intimate vocals and bittersweet chords on the track "Pink Mask" - the assuring angle that AG takes with the lyrics on this track, too.

Again, I enjoy it, but it's not really stylistically enforced by much of anything else on the record, which I think just continues to show how buffet-style AG's approach on this album was. Just try a little bit of everything to showcase his versatility as a songwriter and a producer. I mean, I think one of the best things that could come from a record like this is that a prominent or a potentially successful pop artist hears this and thinks, I want to work with this guy. Because while there are some great tracks on here, some strong songs, a unique style, overall, as an album experience, the entire thing is a bit bloated, a slog, with its various shortcomings and forgettable tracks canceling out the good a little bit, which does make me wish that we got a more groomed and properly formulated album this time around, but what are you going to do?

I'm feeling a decent two strong six on this one.

Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best, you're the best. What should I review next? Hit the like if you like.

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