Get To Know Penguin Prison’s Self-Titled Debut Album

There are very few performers who are doing so much that’s so right and deserve to break out big time as Penguin Prison, the band fronted by the musical chameleon that is New Yorker Chris Glover.

Penguin Prison arrived on the scene with a single in 2009, which was followed by… more singles.  But for the most part, they formed a portion of my essential soundtrack of 2010 and 2011.  The quirky, dark, Caribbean flavour of “Something I’m Not” was my intriguing introduction, and then came something entirely different, a sunny, chipper, California-by-way-of-70s-Doobie Brothers tune called “The Worse It Gets”.  I didn’t care where Chris and his team were heading with this mélange... it’s all good… and it continued.  The new wave rock/dance raveup “Golden Train” arrived, in-between free online mixes which Chris posted.  And then he showed where his roots are – he mashed up “Golden Train” with Michael Jackson’s “Workin’ Day and Night”, a stroke of brilliance.

By the time of “Golden Train” I had already seen Penguin Prison in concert, which prepared me for the remixes that were unleashed for the Prince-anchored and excellent “Multi-Millionaire”.  Then Chris went back to an early recording for a variety of remixes of “Fair Warning”, including a punchy one by France’s Dirty Vegas (2002’s seminal “Days Go By”).

With the exception of the Jackson mashup, all of the singles above are included in Penguin Prison’s self-titled debut album in their original album versions, hence we get some additions, such as more lyrics that we hadn’t heard in remixes of “Fair Warning”.  These singles alone make the album worth buying; the rest of the top notch songs are bonuses.

The album doesn’t stay entirely on the dance club tip.  There’s a lot of early 80’s new wave influence in songs like the Gary Numan-sounding at times “Desert Cold” and the languid “Someone Got Everything”.

But when Penguin Prison is at its best, the 70’s and 80’s R&B colours shine through.  “Don’t Fuck With My Money”, the striking album opener, is essentially an anthemic rocker married with 70’s disco and R&B (watch for the video soon).  And Chris Glover is a supurb vocalist – listen to the power in “Money” and “Fair Warning” in particular.

This record will be most noted however for its vibrant dance club vibe.  There seems to be an entire undercurrent developing again, forging NYC disco with London dance, and we’re hearing it not only with Penguin Prison, but Jessica 6 and Lana Del Rey as well among others.

Don’t hesitate to scoot over to iTunes to grab Penguin Prison’s debut album.  I can’t wait to hear what Chris Glover comes up with next because there’s way more inside of his music than meets the ear.