The Veronicas - The Veronicas (2014)

Seven years separated the third Veronicas album from the second -- a substantial break characterized by feuds with their record company that ultimately led to much of their planned third album being scrapped. Undaunted, the duo finally switched allegiances from Warner to Sony and proceeded to polish up The Veronicas, recorded in 2010 with a variety of collaborators. As always, Toby Gad is on board for a large chunk of the album, but so is Nellee Hooper ("Cold"), Roger Alan Nichols ("Sanctified"), DNA ("You Ruin Me," "If You Love Someone"), and Daniel Johns under his Dreamlab guise with Ruffian. Most modern new millennial pop albums are made with this many cooks, with the expectation that the charisma of the artist ties it together -- and Jessica and Lisa Origliasso do indeed have the vision to make The Veronicas seem coherent. From the start, the Veronicas have been razor-sharp, spending nearly as much time with sugary pop sounds of the past as they did with cutting-edge sounds, and although the album bears the slightest traces of cycling through sounds that were hip a few years earlier, that's where the group's smarts come into play. Not only is their melodic sense finely honed, there's often wit there (enough to mitigate songs too on the nose, like "Born Bob Dylan") and the record is restless, incorporating everything from modern to retro soul, EDM glances, and pop classicism. That imagination keeps The Veronicas hopping even through its occasional slow parts and, more than anything, it also shows that pop has been poorer without the Veronicas in it.