Merry Peers, Brad Henkel & Yoshiko Klein - Genuine Pretension (2025) Hi-Res

"Genuine Pretension” is the 2nd studio album from Merry Peers. Expanding on their self-titled debut release Merry Peers (2019) , Genuine Pretension adds both more layers of sound in the form of drums machines and samplers, and more pop elements in form of song forms, bass lines and meter. As in the first record, the pieces are weaved in between ambient improvs and Hassell-esque trumpet lines.
It opens with a cathartic needle drop of drum delay madness and a floating vocal melody none too subtly emotional lyrics. Are the songs just honest and innocently sappy or ironically self-aware? I think the point is that it doesn’t matter as long as it sounds good and draws the listener in. All in all, there’s a lot packed into the two short sides of this album: some tunes, lots of reverb, lots of auto-harm, lots of noisy stuff.