Boppin' All the Way to the Bank: Terror Jr Review

I first mentioned the pop group, Terror Jr, in Weekly Roundup #1. Since then, the faceless "Lisa Terror" revealed her angelic visage, Felix Snow left, making the group a duo, and Firefly Music Festival announced Terror Jr on their lineup. Concerning my excitement over the latter, I figured it was time to dedicate a whole piece to them.

"Pop” duo is a little deceiving, it's more dark electropop. The melodies in the background have a definite beat that will cause slow head bobbing and foot tapping (you have been warned). Lisa's voice is a higher-pitched, ethereal sound dreamily interwoven through the rolling, synth-heavy melodies. The sweet, candy-coated arias belie the sinister, druggy lyrics throughout the songs. Terror Jr paints a perfect picture of the Millennial mindset. We're eager to prove and make something of ourselves, we put so much importance on making the most out of life; yet, we're so disconnected, from each other and even ourselves. 

There are three albums released over a year: Bop City (eight songs), Bop City 2: TerroRising (13 songs) and Bop 3: The Girl Who Cried Purple (seven songs). There's a definite sound the group has stuck with, the albums flow together extremely well. In fact, I'm listening to all three on shuffle right now and you wouldn't be able to specifically call out the different albums. They work as one whole despite their three strong parts. The album cover art for the first two really emphasize this. Bop City is an image of a cute poppy suburban neighborhood and for Bop City 2, the neighborhood has been plunged into darkness with searchlights and roaring flames. Very Terror-esque. Bop City 3 gets even darker with an image of an unamused Lisa weeping thick bloody-looking grape juice (I only know it's grape juice because grapes are their "thing") in front of the sign from the prior two albums.

While I love every song Terror Jr has put out, I definitely have favorites from each album. From the original Bop City, I have to call out "Sugar" and "Little White Bars." Bouncy and hook-heavy, you'll have these songs memorized in no time and find yourself absentmindedly humming them all. the. time. Bop City 2 brings "Caramel," "Death Wish" and "Appreciation." "Caramel" is a response to "a surreal world in 2017," according to Lisa. And with lyrics like "But they wanna shut me down like my pussy's fucking worthless" and "Oh, my mind's gettin' violent/It only multiplies in the silence...If my skin was any darker they'd be spillin' my blood/But I don't need to swallow my drugs/Funny how religion's so selective with love," who wouldn't start feeling a little fired up? "Death Wish" is a wicked play on Romeo and Juliet and "Appreciation" is a melancholy reminder on companionship. Finally, Bop City 3 offers the inward-looking "IDK + IDC" about the growing and changing of relationships, the positive "Back Baby" on the worth of living and the thoughtful, slow "Useless," which has winning lyrics like  "Lisa off the grapes/Like Condoleezza with the cape/Blowin' Hillary out the vape" and "It's useless, oh-oh-oh/To feel useless."

And we can't forget about the quintessential Christmas carol every artist seems to want to offer. Sad Sad Girl, released in late 2017, is a twisted carol for all my Santa-haters and naughty girls and boys out there. With lyrics like, "This is what I call a white Christmas/Snowman nose, I think I'm Rudolph bitch." If you don't know what those lyrics mean, you are too innocent for this blog, please save yourself now!

After writing this deep dive into this duo, I'm even more excited to see them at Firefly in June, and I hope I've turned you on to a new favorite. I'm also feeling pretty motivated so I highly recommend you go listen to Bop City right now and work your way through! Plus, the Spotify Terror Jr radio station is pretty bangin'. You're welcome.

And as Lisa would say, "Now it's time to show what you're made of, yeah."