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Defined in his own words as “power pop,” Sean spoke brazenly of how intensely “poppy” and “powerful” this album would be. He even announced a number of cameos which would be on the album, which was to feature Susy Sharp of The Soviettes and Jason Miller of The Crush.

Pop Star Management opens with a prologue, featuring lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet spoken by members of the band. After tearing through the words of Shakespeare, the album opens with
“G-spot” featuring Susy Sharp.

Now I must admit, I have tendency to detest “power pop” as much as anyone else, but we all know that we leave room for a guilty pleasure in our musical taste.

If The Christ Punchers ever attempted to make a song that is the epitome of a guilty pleasure, “G-spot” certainly succeeds at that. Immediately, I wanted to listen to it again, with lyrics questioning the staying power of “power pop” and an insanely catchy chorus of “Whoa oh, whoa oh,” this song leaves an impressionable mark on the album.

As much as I am impressed with the first track, the entire remainder of the album left me high and dry. I
had sincerely hoped for an entire album which could be considered a guilty pleasure and was left with one song satisfying that desire, and six other songs leaving me wanting something better.

The album continues on to the next track called “F* it” which lyrically leaves me questioning the intelligence behind the songwriter of this track. The two minute song contains little more than “Sometimes I really just like to say f* it, sometimes you really just gotta say f* it.”

It makes me want to call up The Christ Punchers and offer them a thesaurus to better serve their lack of vocabulary.

While “G-spot” gets stuck in my head in an oh-so-good way, “F* it,” gets stuck in my head in such a way that it makes me want to tear my hair right out of my head if I have to hear the song one more time.

The remainder of the album (all of five more tracks) continues on without either impressing me or irritating me.

However, I must point out the remnants of the mid-1990s ska genre. While ska was catchy in its time, I wish that The Christ Punchers knew that adding a horn section (referred to as The Nailers in this case) to their band can make them more catchy, but in a bad way. The ska sound never becomes prominent on the album, but does detract from the overall quality of the songs which feature the horn section. It is an irksome sound which made me want to quickly proceed to the next track despite the fact that each song is around two minutes long, if that.

Another thing that I found myself disappointed about was the lack of Jason Miller’s cameo on the album. For months this album was publicized as including a cameo with Jason Miller, lead singer of The Crush, and even the CD release show publicized that Miller would be making an appearance during The Christ Puncher’s set. Not only does Jason Miller not make a cameo on the album, he didn’t make an appearance during the CD release show.

For only having been a band for less than an entire year, The Christ Punchers certainly have begun to make a name for themselves, even if their album is only 18 minutes long, and should have been released as an EP. The album makes definite headway to the ultimate goal of being a power pop band, but the theme does not last throughout the album. Beginning as an intensely catchy album, the remainder falls short of my expectations of “power pop,” and turns into a mediocre punk record at best.

If The Christ Punchers continue to work hard and use “G-spot” as a prototype for their pop songs, they may begin to see some definite success for future endeavors.

Overall? Pop Star Management holds a promise for the future for The Christ Punchers and all of their fans.