{"id":751104,"date":"2026-08-27T06:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751104\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:06:09","slug":"plum-bodies-in-motion-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751104\/","title":{"rendered":"Plum: Bodies in Motion Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

After locating the beat, Intro to Dance classes always start with moving your feet\u2014in any direction, at any pace, patterns be damned. If you\u2019re feeling apprehensive and can\u2019t yet see where your shoes are guiding you, may I recommend one of the most kinetic songs of 2024: \u201cAnxiety<\/a>\u201d by the Chicago trio Plum<\/a>? Every move works when set to their new wave-styled post-punk, from fluid poses to herky-jerky flailing. With a title like Bodies in Motion, Plum\u2019s second full-length is a slice of advice about the highs of dancing, but no words are needed when the music alone makes the instructions this clear: Move and the fun will follow.<\/p>\n

At their most hectic, Plum write songs where fragments of their instruments rain down with an acidic tint: Heather Perry\u2019s bass leaps like Q*bert skipping blocks to escape snakes, Eric Ridder rattles his cymbals as if they\u2019re actively spiraling off the stands, and Jeff Kelley splinters his guitar riffs into squiggly lines or electrocuted exclamation points. It\u2019s why \u201cCan Jam\u201d sounds like a zany cereal commercial come to life with percussive toys, or how the cool-toned diverging melodies in \u201cMemory\u201d maintain a buoyant atmosphere. Underneath Plum\u2019s retro take on post-punk is a firm rooting in funk. Every song on Bodies in Motion comes back to Perry and Ridder, who egg each other on with the type of irrefutable groove that has Anderson .Paak<\/a> grabbing his wig for a bob off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

In the title track, Plum explain how the end of the world will go down not in a flurry of missiles or wartime scares, but when electrical outlets emit a frequency that makes everyone stand up and burst into movement. The Spielbergian conceit plays out like pure Araki camp. \u201cCouldn\u2019t stop our hips, perpetual motion\/Nothing left to do but sweat until we drop,\u201d sings Kelley over ricocheting guitar-and-bass interplay. There\u2019s no call to the dancefloor quite like our planet\u2019s ticking clock, and they milk it for all of its rapture-laced thrill.<\/p>\n

No matter a song\u2019s scenario, Plum decorate it with the streamers and snacks of an uncontrollable, irresistible party. In \u201cObscurity,\u201d Kelley yelps like David Byrne<\/a> midway through Stop Making Sense as his Talking Heads<\/a> bandmates escalate the energy, and the trio channels the B-52\u2019s<\/a> eminent Saturday Night Live set with \u201cClub Scum\u201d as Perry nails her falsettos amid the ample space created for angular dance moves. Even boredom is conquerable for Plum. When Kelley confesses in \u201cAsymmetric\u201d that it \u201cfeels like nothing ever happens,\u201d he can\u2019t shake the imagery around him that\u2019s challenging time: the endless blue horizon, two mirrors facing each other, a dried flower pressed in the pages of a book. His bandmates come to the rescue with jabbing bass and tom hits until the embellishments drive home the obvious: You\u2019re the creator of your own fun. By the single\u2019s end, Plum sound collectively liberated and loose.<\/p>\n