A friend and I had a weekly tradition of midnight drives. Every Monday night, either a beaten Toyota or brand new Ford would hit the road, with a pair of high schoolers just bouncing thoughts off each other as the headlights painted the county roads ahead. We’d talk about the usual: school, girls, geopolitics. You know, normal high school stuff.
Our standard soundtrack was like something out of St. Elmo’s Fire. Dexy’s Midnight Runners, a-Ha and the Top Gun Soundtrack were the regulars, with the blanks filled in by the likes of Springsteen, Hagar and hair metal’s greatest hits. Somewhere in that mix of keytars and new wave is a place that MUNA’s “Loudspeaker” could’ve easily called home — it’s that unabashedly 1980s.
“Loudspeaker” is retro-pop incarnate. It has the MTV-friendly hooks. It has the layers of synthesizers playing the field in both rhythm and melody. There’s a guitar throwing down a crisp disco groove, and electric drums bang out that 4/4 beat you’ve always known. Singer Katie Gavin tries to coax the quiet types into self-expression, singing with a confidence that knows that even if the words fall flat, there’s still enough exuberant power pop to sell the whole show.