“Loopy Loopy Love”
from the album Mars Loves Venus
2005
Mars Loves Venus is definitely a summer record. There are the sunny, power-pop melodies, doo-wopy harmonies, and of course the prerequisite sticky-sweet boy/girl vocals. And for the most part it works pretty well. Heather Mansfield and
 The Brunettes |
Jonathan Bree coyly sing about a season’s worth of flirtatious altercations, with insouciant glee and tongue-in-cheek charm. The album’s got them talking about all loves of independent record store groupies, the penthouse apartments of enviable friends, and even their own musical influences.
Just because there may not be much sonic innovation here doesn’t mean you can’t genuinely enjoy the album, even if it is a bit derivative. Take “Loopy Loopy Love” for instance. It’s got enough ’60s girl-group pep to help you get over your latest ex, with sweetly sung couplets like “But this emptiness is real, yes ill-heartedness is true / When days of splendor in the grass, turn into days so blue,” you’ll be bobbing your head to heartbreak in no time. Elsewhere, “Polyester Meets Acetate” describes the girl every hipster guy wants. She’s a “conquest in heels” who reads Alternative Press and Chomsky, and her every movement is followed by luring boys, lots of ooh, ooh oohs, and a guitar solo vaguely reminiscent of the Velvet’s “Femme Fatale.” And even when you think things are getting to cheeky like the bubbly “Whale in the Sand,” menacingly sarcastic lines like “That time bomb stoped tick tick tickin’ / At a quarter to detonation / Now I’m picking up a good vibration.”
And the playfulness never stops, even on the slowest number. On the waltz-like “Beautiful Militant,” where Mansfield advises you to “pick up your gun and shoot everyone,” you can see her gleeful smirk shining through the tongue-in-check lyrics. Ultimately though, this is a lighthearted listen and one that will leave you smiling, even if it just for the summer.