Album Review: "Welcome To The Jungle" by Neon Jungle

Neon Jungle's debut album was released earlier this year in the UK and will bless American ears soon. As the first recipients of the Future Smash Hit section of the blog, Asami, Jess, Shereen, and Amira had a lot to live up to and thankfully they deliver. Welcome To The Jungle is the most fun a girlband has had in a while and the album benefits from 3 things: the girls' attitudes, excellent music taste, and dream collaborators.

Ever since they came onto the scene last year with "Trouble" (still amazing), Neon Jungle set themselves apart from the crowd by constantly supplying electronic bonkers pop that you just don't get from music these days. Most of the album follows that logic, incorporating pretty epic electro production to match the girls' spunky rebellious personalities. The closest comparison you could make is 4 Rihanna's coming together to make a classically ingenious pop album. Doesn't that sound great?

Don't get me wrong, the album has its problems. The first four songs happen to be the singles, making it a little top heavy and the rest of the songs have #trouble living up to the standard set by them. Furthermore, these songs have a tough time keeping Neon Jungle from veering into other stars territory, with "Can't Stop The Love" sounding a little too much like a Black Eyed Peas single. The girls also put in too many covers on the album, with Hozier's "Take Me To Church" and Lorde's "Royals" making the cut. Along with that, the girls still haven't mastered the whole balladry and acoustic thing as "Louder" and "Waiting Game" really detract from the inherent fun of the album. Ultimately, this seems like a tough sell on creating material when the Jungle didn't have enough songs.

*Side Note: There has been much controversy surrounding Neon Jungle covering "Waiting Game" by LA singer BANKS and putting it on the album without BANKS knowing about it. BANKS has taken the time to air her grievances and Neon Jungle has not made a statement. It's a little sad as the girls really should have made more songs instead of adding their Youtube Covers to the album. However, it seems a little unfair to drag the album as their version is far different from BANKS's and will ultimately, bring her a lot of attention. So it might be hard to hear someone receiving praise for your song, but BANKS will benefit in the long run and her album is sure to be amazing as well.

However, we have to remember that this is Neon Jungle's first album when their first single came out less than a year ago. That's faster than other bands like M.O or Mutya Keisha Siobhan who have been around for a lot longer and still haven't gotten around to releasing material as monumental as Neon Jungle. And that does go for every song on the album: MONUMENTAL. The girls sing, belt, rap, sneer, and laugh their way across songs like "Braveheart" and "Bad Man" which shows just how much personality matters in songs (love the Japanese Asami). It may be their first album, but they hold their own throughout.

The album also has the best collection of writers on a pop album in 2014. First off, Anita Blay and Benjamin Berry were the masterminds behind "Trouble". If their names don't ring a bell, you may recognize them as Cocknbullkid, responsible for the incredible Adulthood album, and Fear Of Tigers, who are known for their bonkers electronica. Cocknbullkid also worked her magic on two bonus tracks. The first is "Future X Girl" which is arguably the best song off the entire album. With that "These boys can't step to this, so take a seat cuz I'm that bitch" rap and hand clappy rhythm, the girls solidify their status as the coolest band since Girls Aloud. We can also attribute this amazingness to the co-writer being Aminata Kabba, otherwise known as A*M*E, one of the BEST popstars in the making. It's not over though.

The second single written by Cocknbullkid is "London Rain", the best ballad from the album. It was written with Uzoechi Emenike, aka MNEK one of the best pop singer-songwriters on the planet. Like this dude rivals Sia and Gaga with his writing ability. Seriously, I'm dying. BUT WAIT. Joining the ranks on Neon Jungle's collaborators is "Boom Clap" hitmaker, Tumblr enthusiast and one of my all time favorite people in music, CHARLI XCX. That's write, "So Alive", the second to last song on the album (so unfair), is a bonafide bouncy electro belter written by Charli XCX!!!!! If that song isn't released as a single, I may have to have a word with Neon Jungle's management (it's really good guys).

Basically, these girls strut like they own the world and the self-praising single "Welcome To The Jungle" announces their arrival to pop as the new queens in town. Now I don't say this lightly, but Neon Jungle have officially joined the ranks of Girls Aloud, Spice Girls, and The Saturdays to represent the best of British girl pop. And if this album was good, just think how good the next one will be! Don't get in too much #Trouble till then girls.

Best Listened: In your car, shamelessly belting and rapping with the Jungle

Best Songs: All the singles, So Alive, Future X Girl

NSOTP Rating: 8.9/10

Future Smash Alert: Are You Ready for "Trouble" by Neon Jungle?

Let's not beat around the bush (did you catch that jungle reference?). We are in a severe girl group shortage at the moment and pop can never really be amazing unless one is going about somewhere making amaze balls music. In 2013, we saw the end of Girls Aloud (WE WILL NEVER FORGET) and Sugababes 2.0, which really could have ended after that last forgettable single they released. Meanwhile, the Origibabes, aka Mutya Keisha Siobhan, came back with a brilliant single and decided to go away into obscurity for a while, as all major artists do. Currently, The Saturdays are readying a Greatest Hits album only, Little Mix is nearing the end of their album campaign for Salute and Danity Kane was cut down to a trio before the release of their comeback single (Fifth Harmony who?).

Indeed, it looked as if we may have entered a dark age where girl groups died out and desolation could be heard from every corner. We may as well have gone through another ice age that killed all the dinosaurs, that's how cold life felt.

Then, out of nowhere, Neon Jungle decided to casually go about saving the world as we know it and reinvigorating life into the cliché idea of what a girl group should sound like. In summer 2013, "Trouble" by the Jungle came out and signaled the arrival of a hurricane sized force in pop. Who were these four stunning modelesque beauties trashing this house while playing with puppies? Well they happened to be Jess Plummer, Asami Zdrenka, Shereen Cutkelvin, and Amira McCarthey. With "Trouble" being their debut single, Neon Jungle cemented their position as the new girl group in town. 

The song's revolutionary ability to set itself apart from the rest of mainstream radio is thanks to its writers, the amazing pop entities known as Cocknbullkid and Fear of Tigers (those names alone deserve a Grammy).With enough swagger and badassery to earn themselves a place on Bad Girls Club, the high energy Icona Pop-like catchiness of "Trouble" will not get out of your head for at least 72 hours and this is coming from a premed student so you know it's true.  Not only did it give the girls their first top 20 chart hit in the UK and become one of the best songs of 2013, it gave them enough traction to cross the pond and perform at last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show alongside pop juggernauts like Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy.

The girls kept the momentum going by releasing 2 more top 10 hit singles "Braveheart" and "Welcome to the Jungle" which was essentially their way of saying, "Remember 'Spice Up Your Life'? Yeah, we're Neon Jungle, bitches!" The reckless clubby feel of these songs fit along with their debut single and their album set to be released at the end of July is sure to be among one of 2014's finest.

The best part about the band is that they know they're awesome. So awesome that they release covers of other amazing music, thereby compiling the collective amazingness into one performance. So awesome that the girls regularly show how much they love their fans through different media. And so awesome that the UK can't possibly contain their amazingness and they have decided to release "Trouble" in America THIS SUMMER! If that doesn't become a smash hit in the States, I will have lost all faith in college girls in the club who would eat this song up. But in the meantime, I'll be bouncing up and down to this song until the 72 hour rush it gives me dies away, which will probably never happen. And all I have to say to that is...