International Teachers of Pop - Pop Gossip Review

With a toe in the 80s and a foot in future, Pop Gossip transcends their addictive form of synth-laden disco and grows more multifaceted

As summertime draws to a close and the towns of Northern England return to their blankets of grey and forecasts of rain, Sheffield’s most underrated band release their second album Pop Gossip. An album designed to fill the nightclubs of long dark winter (hoping they can even open by Christmas) with an overload of synth, lipstick and vodka red bulls. Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer’s (also of Moonlandingz and Eccentronic Research Council) 80s-90s electronics and in-your-face popisms are coated in Leonore Wheatley shine to funny, catchy and clever results. There’s critique and intelligence in the words and messages on the record, which could easily be missed in a more casual listen, but its brilliance is that it works on both levels. Human League, Pulp, and ABC be wary, there’s a new breed of Sheffield synthpop coming for your crown. Strap yourselves into your desk; you’re about to receive an addictive masterclass of pop lessons.

Pop Gossip has one eye fixed on the stronger flavours of pop from the past, leaving the rest of the body traversing the depths of the multiverse, bringing back gifts to hit us right in the future. In their debut album, ITOP opened with ‘After Dark’: an absolute force of disco acting as an effective introduction to the band. Similarly, ’Don’t Diss the Disco’ is a powerful, throbbing statement of intent that opens up strongly on the dancefloor. The track personifies disco, simultaneously describing the drug-like effect of such aggressive pop coursing through a body and acting as the catalyst to start an immediate kitchen dance. We feel immediately connected to the album, the band and the whole 80s nightclub of our minds. This catchy stomper reminds us that we embody the dancing spirit and that music unifies humanity.

There’s a uniqueness where this album analyses, with a near-seriousness in the messages masked by wall-to-wall bangers. ‘Gaslight’ is a darker creeper, with Wheatley taking on the role of a gaslighting victim, struggling to identify characteristics of her identity and dependent on her manipulator. The chorus is freeing, like a realisation of this abuse and an act of defiance. Towards the close of side A, ITOP slow us down with the aptly named ‘A Change’ to reflect with a hip hop beat and Wheatley crooning, challenging us to work out “what it's going to take”. We meander alongside her through a hazy city with air “thick like molasses'' and look for a place to hide. The echoing closing refrain of “a change” feels desperate, like something has to give, and there’s a lot in the world that needs to give.

Of course, there’s an intrinsic humour and silliness that coincides with the deeper evaluations. The Jason Williamson featuring ‘I Stole Yer Plimsoles’ wouldn’t be out of place on one of Williamson’s Sleaford Mod albums. Lyrically it plays out like a ridiculous argument taking place over the course of a night out. The Plimsoles in question could be seen as representative of maturity, “look at you, 32 walking round without your shoe” a cutting damnation of the psyche of normative men in their 30s clinging onto their youth. But at its most basic, the song's a great big ball of fun. ‘Prince’ feels thoroughly like a celebration, suggesting we all “do what we like/need” in our mission to get higher and reach the sky. Certified banger ‘The Red Dots’ initially seems to describe the art of pulling on a night out but turns into a deeper lamentation of the character's love life, with her seemingly trying to bring herself back from the attraction and “get it together”. Single ‘Flood The Club’ is underpinned by a rippling synth and erratic drum beat, later topped with sharper electronica akin to a laser beam and FX borrowed from the sound department of a horror film. As listeners we are ready to “turn the taps on” and flood the club. Is this song pushing us to challenge the status quo or is it just evocative of the very real horror of needing a water break during a gig? Maybe both.

The bands Internationalism by name is highlighted the moment the words “Wir brauchen keine bildung” are muttered in ‘Ein Weiterer Stein In Der Wand’ The Pink Floyd cover sung completely auf Deutsch transports us to a Berlin underground club in the 90s. It exists with guitar solo outro et al, because why the hell not!? It operates as a ridiculous sandwich filling between the album’s bloated doughy track, the skippable (but by no means bad) ‘Beats Working For a Living’, and its best. ‘Femenergy’ is supreme disco-feminism, female empowerment by way of synthpop, propelling women to take complete control of the narratives surrounding their bodies, energies and sexuality. As we are asked if we can feel Wheatley’s own “femenergy”, a definite contender for word of the year, we can’t help but feel it as she channels all the world’s femenergy in a celebration of femininity and womanhood that comes as an uprising of uncontrollable dance.

International Teachers of Pop have had a case as the best new band out of Sheffield for quite some time when they released their pop-behemoth debut in 2019. With a toe in the 80s and a foot in future, Pop Gossip transcends their addictive form of synth-laden disco and grows more multifaceted, comparable in quality to Sheffield legends Pulp or The Human League. At its core, it's an unbelievably catchy and unstoppably move-inducing lesson in good pop. Deeper than that, there's a cutting analysis of nightclubs, gaslighters and middle aged men acting like teenagers, but also a celebration of humanity, of better nightclubs and of femininity. Listen up to the gossip woven into the bangers or just put the record on and dance forever. Either way, let’s move toward unity under the same discoball.