On first listen, The Prettiots’ Funs Cool is sort of twee. The trio’s songs are played on drums, a bass, and a ukulele in the sort of sugary way you associate with the lack of substance found in Rilo Kiley and the lyrics seem a little like something you would find in a diary from sleepaway camp: “Won’t you please just be perfect right away?/ Not too nice or too mean and hopefully not gay.” Even on ‘Suicide Hotline’ the lyrics are all too easily overlooked by the pop-py melody. But another playthrough or two later, it seems more like that’s the point.
Even at their meanest and darkest, The Prettiots sound jovial. The album opens on ‘18 Wheeler,’ in which the frontwoman, Kay Kasparhauser, sings about someone who hates her in the cheeriest way I have ever heard. It is followed by ‘Boys(That I Dated in High School)’ wherein she literally details the boys that she dated in high school in the same sort of “Oh well” manner. A little while later, The Misfits’ ‘Skulls’ is turned into to a pop tune.
Another portion of the album is spent daydreaming in song form. On ‘Move to LA,’ Los Angeles is romanticised really hard, on ‘Dream Boy,’ a few irrational-but totally understandable and justified pleas are made, and ‘Stabler’ is a love letter to Elliot Stabler from Law and Order: SVU. The sentiments on each song add to an exceedingly personal energy found throughout Funs Cool.
‘Stabler’ precedes ‘Anyways,’ the slowest and most serious song on the album. Perhaps one of the strongest on the LP, the track feels eerily familiar on first listen – I had to Google the lyrics to see if it was a cover. Perhaps it’s the melody, or the words themselves (“You broke me but I wasn’t yours to break”) that make it seem like it’s been done before. But since it hadn’t, I’m glad that The Prettiots did it.
The album’s closer is ‘10/10 Would Chill Again,’ a song full of distinctly millennial sentiments: “Is vaping cool or what?” “I wish I could get a loan off my Uber score,” and my particular favorite, “Guys, I’m worried about Drake.” Its an overwhelmingly appropriate ending to the frank, irreverent LP.
There’s a good chance you’ll hate The Prettiots. The melodies are repetitive and Kay Kasparhauser is only half singing. But there’s an equal chance you’ll, like, really like them. The trio’s earnesty is endearing and the honest, no bullshit quality to the lyrics are extremely refreshing in the face of the age-old indie pop trend of BIG IDEA metaphors spanning four minutes(See: Voxtrot).
It’s certainly a risk worth taking, because Funs Cool is probably the funniest album I’ve heard in a while. Though it might not be on purpose.
