The last two
Gigolo Aunts albums were each '90s power pop classics but sat at extreme opposite ends of the pop spectrum.
Flippin' Out, with its unruly solos, closely resembled hard rock and grunge, while the adult contemporary trappings of
Minor Chords and Major Themes bore more of a resemblance to
Fleetwood Mac than
Big Star. Fans were often divided, then, when discussing which
Gigolo Aunts was better: the rock band or the pop band, and since there was so little middle ground in the two releases it was easy to pick favorites. But after another label shuffle and a three-year absence, the (initially) import-only
Pacific Ocean Blues is the closest thing to a "definitive" album that
the Gigolo Aunts have ever released. The smooth production values of the last album still reign here, but the band doesn't hesitate to rock out a lot more, which produces some of the band's most memorable material. Specifically, "Let Go!" is easily the most infectious and immediate song in
the Gigolo Aunts' cannon -- while it runs for just over five minutes, the song packs in two fantastic, flashy guitar solos and a killer horn-inflected chorus. And on the more "adult" side, "Even Though (The One Before the Last)" tops nearly all of the mid-tempo material on the last album. This is still not the album to start with --
Flippin' Out is really a power pop classic of its time and is where any beginner should look -- but anyone paying attention to the scattershot career of this formerly Boston-based band will find that
Pacific Ocean Blues, by tying up the band's stylistic loose ends, is possibly
the Gigolo Aunts' most consistent listen.