Mint Royale - 'Pop Is...' (Faith & Hope) Released 05/03/07

On their ‘Pop Is…’compilation, Mint Royale attempt to prove that they’re more than just the soundtrack to films, tea-time ad breaks and bizarrely, Prince Williams’ jolly bloody busy schedule of wondering which chinos one should sport. And, perhaps surprisingly, they do it pretty well. 

‘Don’t Falter’ is a rather endearing, summery ice-cream jingle, showing Lauren Laverne actually has a purpose other than saying ‘fucktard’ for her own amusement at the NME awards. Dividing pensioners the nation over is their guilty-pleasure reworking of ‘Singin’ In The Rain’: a dance floor dusting, umbrella swirling sing-along that is unlikely ever to grow weary, somehow making it all seem rather fun if we lived in a heel-clicking world of musical-esque romances and happy endings.

It’s this sunshiney, chirpy feel that pervades on this retrospective: ok, so its probably not that cool to like this, but neither is it that cool to sing along with a nun, an austere and rich gentleman and a sickening bunch of vocal, Austrian school-children. Never mind, though, we’ve probably all done it.  And so, with shame and public decency firmly burning bright on the back burner, its absolutely fine to enjoy the vile, crass, Damien Hirst un-subtlety of Terrorvision’s ‘Tequila’, or the vulgar but somewhat amusing declarations of ‘Sexiest Man In Jamaica’. 

Thankfully, soaring strings and sweet, plaintive sincerity breaks up the album with the remix of Stone Roses ‘Elephant Stone’ and the tranquillity of ‘Dancehall Places’. ‘From Rusholme With Love’ is an energetic, Bollywood bleeping dance-psychosis, picking up the tempo in the middle of this 15 track epic, showing the diversity this album has to offer. They’ll never be the cool, yuppy sophistication of an After Eight, but ‘Pop Is..’ is still sweet and refreshing.