Album Review: Regurgitator - Dirty Pop Fantasy

When not out and out embracing the poppiest of pop music, the 'Gurge has always had a knack for hiding catchy pop songs under distorted guitars, dark lyrics and the odd sprinkling of hardcore hip hop. With their latest, Regurgitator try to have it both ways. While a lot of Dirty Pop Fantasy sounds like it could be Unit: Part 2, the rest sounds like the more modern-day incarnation of Quan Yeomans and Ben Ely, heard on 2011's SuperHappyFunTimesFriends and 2007's Love And Paranoia.

With only five of its 19 tracks breaking the three-minute barrier, Dirty Pop Fantasy never messes around in getting to the point. Mountains sees Yeomans doing his best Ian Curtis impression. So Tuff is 60 seconds of the kind of Ely simple punk rock every Regurgitator album needs, while Answering Machine is all acoustic finger-picking and almost whispered vocals with a hint of Simon & Garfunkel.

Is the album title Regurgitator's almost apologetic confession to indulging completely in their own retro, dirty pop weaknesses? Or is it a declaration that they know it's dirty, they know it's totally indulgent, and they just don't care? The 'Gurge made it through the '90s Alt-Oz boom. They made it through fleeting mainstream success. They made it through wilderness years and performance art. These days, I think the band, and Dirty Pop Fantasy, can both be summed up best by album standout, We Love You!, with Yeomans declaring, “We know what you want, but we're not gonna give it to you, 'coz that would be easy.”