Too much pop can make you dizzy. It fizzes up inside; you start saying things like "neato." Pop's better in moderation, but it's best with whiskey, and The Nice Device know it. For a self-released debut EP, the Detroit fivesome's Birth of a Lover is one professional package, punching out seven songs in under 20 minutes and preferring bare-knuckle performance to bubblegum pussyfooting.
Andrea Gbur wails like a female Jim Ellison, and something in the harder edge of her voice says she knows what girls want, too, but on a track like "Never Be My Man", their racket is focused like solid state fuzz. The Nice Device aren't going to get all cute on you and start chirping about love puppies over syrupy string sections. No, "My Little Birdie" and "Oh Me Oh My" are powered by a blown tweeter rhythm guitar that cranks like it's trying to kick over an old motorbike. The keyboards are in the garage-rock vein, adding color to the choruses with vintage tones. And yet, the hooks keep bringing Lover right back to pop. Indeed, The Nice Device aren't staying in the garage, and they're certainly not wasting time noodling in the studio; they're playing out in the street, busting open fire hydrants with bursts of summertime-friendly hard pop.
Okay, they did have to spend some time in the studio. But the gritty straightforwardness brought to the proceedings by White Stripes and Mooney Suzuki producer Jim Diamond keeps these proceedings sufficiently raw, while the Brendan Benson-produced tracks showcase a rare poppy economy. The Nice Device even layer some dynamics into the brief Lover. "How Low How Obscene" slices up bibles at a slinky crawl, and features a few more of the clever vocal overdubs that surface throughout. These, of course, only further characterize Gbur, constantly preventing a fade into the chick-singer fog. "Back to the City"'s coed harmonies are great as well, and the song's ambitious, Bowie-meets-The Go arrangement makes for a nice change of pace.
Still, The Nice Device's knockout shot is straight-up, stripped-down rock 'em sock 'em hard pop bop. On "Gotta Get It", Gbur's brassy wail is like a come-hither finger from the darkest alley in the city, and "My Little Birdie" strikes a balance between charming sugar high and nuts 'n' bolts junkyard cacophony. Birth of a Lover is a remarkably strong debut, and sets The Nice Device up as your new crush for summer.
