International Teachers of Pop - Pop Gossip (2020)

International Teachers of Pop's debut album was a fine introduction to the icy-hot synth pop-meets-disco sound crafted by Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer of the Moonlandingz and the Soundcarriers' Lenore Wheatley. 2020's Pop Gossip reunites the group and keeps the basic template intact while expanding their stylistic reach a little. This time around, they balance the massive basslines and majestic melodies of classic Human League-style synth pop with some songs that are looser and more fun. For every booming song like "Don't Diss the Disco," where Wheatley belts out the words like Goldfrapp's little sister while the band threatens to punch a hole in the wall of the club with the drum sound, there's a snappy, silly track like "I Stole Yer Plimsoles," which features Wheatley and Sleaford Mods singer Jason Williamson trading accusations and insults over bubbling keys and a happily elastic beat. They get glitchy and tribal on the machine-driven "Flood the Club," which sounds like a throwaway novelty at first but soon burrows its way into the brain's pleasure centers thanks to its sugary charms. They tread blissfully close to Laura Branigan territory on "Prince (The Last Wheelie)," and they channel their inner Thomas Dolbys on the science-y "Beats Working for a Living (For Martin)." The band pull off these frothy confections like longtime employees of a soda shop, always getting the mixture of interesting sounds, evocative vocals, and hooky melodies just right. The only misstep on the record is the Euro-disco cover of "Another Brick in the Wall;" it tips over the line into frivolity and is just too familiar a song to be rescued, even by a band as clever as this. Luckily they balance it with a song that takes a shimmering left turn into late-night '80s R&B. "A Change" shows that the lads aren't only crack hands at dancefloor resuscitation, they also know how to soundtrack tender moments. For her part, Wheatley proves that if she has limits as a vocalist, they haven't been discovered yet. Taken all together, the songs, sounds, and performances on Pop Gossip work together to make this the group's second triumph in a row and just about the best dance-pop music around circa 2020.