Hi, everyone. Potayto Potahto here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new vgtbl.pl record, Vegetables Worldwide.

This is the debut album of vgtbl.pl, a new but also old duo, which consists of two Polish musicians that have been collaborating together for a minute now. I actually have covered their music in short in the past on my channels, when they previously released music, under their own respective names together, Franek Warzywa & Młody Budda. They're still making music and making music together, obviously. But now with a more focused style, bolder personality and under this vgtbl.pl banner.

This project has been described to me as being like a K-pop group that consists of two people. I guess I could see that with the lucid and most charitable interpretation of the term K-pop, though I mean, these guys are from Poland, wouldn't it technically be like P-pop? But again, I could see the K-pop connection here in terms of vgtbl.pl being a pop group or collective that isn't necessarily defined by one strain of popular music. I mean, like many K-pop groups out there today, a lot of their tracks are basically an amalgamation of popular sounds coming from pop music, rock music, hip hop, and electronic music, too.

Many of those same genres inspire the music of vgtbl.pl here on this new record, though. I would also throw in rock as well as some weird Europop, too. Definitely vgtbl.pl's output, once all of these sounds and influences come together, is certainly a lot weirder than your average K-pop group output. In fact, I would liken what they do on this debut album more to oddball pop engineers like 100 Gecs. Though I do understand for a lot of viewers and musicians, that comparison is going to carry a lot of baggage because obviously, I don't want you guys going into this record expecting purely a hyperpop album because this is definitely not a hyperpop album as dead as that term is currently.

But I do think you could read this vgtbl.pl project in a somewhat similar, terminally online pop absurdist way in that they are making hype, catchy, feel good music that pulls from a lot of places creatively does not take itself too seriously. There's also a rawness and a noisiness about the presentation, too, which runs pretty consistently through the eight tracks on this record.

And yes, while it is a short album under 30 minutes in length, it is a very punchy album with some of the freakiest and funniest tracks I have heard this year, like the title song, the opening song on the record, which I think is a great tone setter, really gets the title of the album buried into your head and sounds like what you would get if you were trying to engineer a Laurie Anderson song for maximal appeal on TikTok, or if you were remixing a Wiggles song about vegetables so that it could be played within a Thunderdome DJ set with hardcore techno fans going crazy on the dance floor in front of the booth.

As ridiculous as this track and vgtbl.pl's vibe may be on the surface, I do think there are some serious emotions fueling some of the moments here, like with the break beats and expressive, anguished vocals on "Never Alone Again", which I do think genuinely convey a sense of isolation and longing. This track also undergoes a pretty interesting musical evolution across its five-minute run time, too, going from peppy Eurodance to these slinky, chill, math rock guitar passages, it's quite something and says a lot about the musical acumen going into these seriously unserious tracks, as the whole thing here is really competently produced, I would say.

There's also "Nice from Poland", which is like this mishmash of classical piano chops, tropical banger beats, and internet weirdo raps. The whole track is really about a desire to be friends, a desire to be liked, and get a party started. The duo begins this journey with this awkward European party guy shtick, but then somehow the whole thing ends off in this amazing, over-the-top, kaleidoscopic rave anthem.

Following this, we have "Krasnoludki", which is this goofy combination of Europop and rock, which makes for one of the most instantly catchy songs on the entire project, the only moment I think it falls short is with the ending, which I wish to underwent as interesting a series of changes and growth as everything up to this point.

We also have the lyrically intensive "Green Friend" in the middle of this project, which is one of the more low-key moments here, and I am told, is essentially about house plants that we leave at home and neglect, essentially don't water when we are out and about exploring and traveling the world. "BOBER" is a wild ass banger that is obviously in reference to beavers. It's a pop rock tune that feels like a Polish EDM dance remix take on this 2000s New York indie rock sound. Very weird series of inspirations going on there, but it somehow works.

The song "On Repeat", I'm not really enamored with as a feat of songwriting prowess, but it is the most high energy moment on the entire and features some psychedelic effects, vocal freakouts, jagged drops of guitar, and God knows what else. Definitely shows that even though you do just have two guys stringing all these different pieces of music and influence fragments together into these songs, it still comes together in a way that feels explosive and live and just bursting at the seams with energy.

The final song on this thing, "Paper Plane", actually shapes up to be one of the most epic progressions of any of the songs here, and a pretty emotional moment, too, as this song also contributes to this feeling of wanting to reach out and connect with other people, forge friendships, and essentially create a sense of togetherness with your music and with your art.

So yeah, vgtbl.pl, I think, have come through with a very fragmented, all over the place, but still bold, creative, and entertaining debut album that, yeah, at least for me, is pretty familiar, given that I think it builds upon a lot of the same ideas and vibes and musical directions that Franek and Młody's previous material did.

But it still feels like I'm now listening to a higher gloss and more fully realized version of all of that on a project that for sure is not perfect, but feels like a very good jumping off point to build something bigger down the road, which is why I'm feeling a light to decent 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, vgtbls.pl. Forever.