The Pipettes 'We Are The Pipettes' album

Earth is nothing but a big blue and green polka dot that’s about to go pop. All arms in the air, hit after hit after hit, number one with a bullet—this business of the Pipettes sounds a bit like warfare, a battle hymn in three-part harmony. Brighton, England’s the Pipettes (RiotBecki, Rosay and Gwenno), fresh off conquering much of the rest of the world, arrive here in the States this summer with a clarion call to all the boys and girls (and anyone else with the gift of hearing) to raise up their arms and do battle with the backbeat.

Make no mistake: there is no nostalgia here. There is no pining for the past, or sighing for a bygone era. This is now. History is like a rolling boulder, gathering steam and speed along the way. And here are the Pipettes, bringing their girl-group sound into a new millennium, taking a pebble from the ‘60s to build their very own towering monument to pop.
“We don't understand why novelty can't mean longevity,” says RiotBecki. “One of the purposes of the Pipettes is to be able to have countless 'one hit wonders,’ to have every song be a hit single.”
All 14 songs on We Are the Pipettes are a testament to that philosophy. The opening title track alone could start a small revolution with its ghostly organ, handclaps, and three otherworldly voices pronouncing, “If you haven’t noticed yet/We’re the prettiest girls you’ve ever met.” It’s an introduction to make a gent go weak in the knees and a lady to leap with glee.
The innuendo hidden beneath the strings and bells of “Tell Me What You Want,” or the challenge posed in “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” prove these Pipettes can be both coy flirts and heartbreakingly elusive. The sing-a-long stories in “Judy” and “One Night Stand” miraculously turn gossip into high art.
We Are the Pipettes is an orchestra of happiness and the human condition. If you have a beating heart, these three women will make it skip a few before they’re done with you.
“I think it's a bit of a challenge to be serious about being fun,” offers Gwenno. “It's a lot easier to moan than to be optimistic in general. It's a lot easier to write a sad song than it is to write a happy one.”
Happiness. What an odd concept in today’s world. If We Are the Pipettes alone doesn’t convert you from bumbling boredom to elation, just enter a room where they’re gracing the stage. Try to keep your arms at your sides and not join in the choreography, the paintbrush strokes of their hands in the air going from flourishes to claps, the whole thing engulfing you like a polka-dotted cloud.
In the end, maybe this is the purest form of protest music, songs that fly in the face of all that’s bad by simply celebrating its opposite.
“If something is good, it's good,” Gwenno concludes. “That’s always quite clear, I think.”

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The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes