By Kate Wiselogel, Contributor

[City Slang Records; 2024]

Rating: 6/10

Key Tracks: “Downhill,” “Running From Myself,” “The Tower”

Pom Pom Squad, led by frontwoman Mia Berrin, have released their second album, titled Mirror Starts Moving Without Me. Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of this album for returning fans is the departure that the band takes from the cheerleader aesthetics that pervaded both their debut EP, Ow and their debut album, Death of a Cheerleader.  

Instead, Mirror Starts Moving Without Me has a more whimsical aesthetic, with Berrin’s light blue dress and matching hair bow on the album’s cover evoking Alice in Wonderland. Upon listening to the album, it is clear that this reference is not a mistake. On the album’s closing track “The Tower,” Berrin states that “my wonderland turned into hell.” 

This reference is not the only time on the album that its connections to larger narratives becomes clear. Mirror Starts Moving Without Me contains many references to Pom Pom Squad’s past work. On the opening track and lead single, “Downhill,” Berrin declares that she’s “coming back from the dead” and on “Streetfighter” she taunts “you couldn’t hear me? What if I cheerlead?” making clear that this album is in fact a continuation of the ideas first presented by Pom Pom Squad in their past releases. 

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The band’s usual guitar-driven indie rock sound is still present throughout the album on songs such as “Street Fighter” and “Villian.” The songs “Spinning” and “Messages” also feature this same sound but have more vulnerability and uncertainty in their lyrics, providing a sense of the wide-range of emotions that inspired this album. While many of the songs featured on this album are what Berrin proclaims on “Streetfighter” as “pretty girl rock,” there are also several well-constructed ballads that add moments of intimacy to the album. The change of pace offered by songs such as the wistfully romantic “Montauk” or the contemplative “Everybody’s Moving On” helps to add some variety to the album.  

Pom Pom Squad’s past music has chronicled the highs and lows of coming of age and on Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, Berrin reckons with the ever-shifting sense of self that comes from all of these changes. She is haunted by “the girl I could’ve been” and laments “I’m still the same / Isn’t it strange.” The album’s repeated references to TV and movies as reflections and often distortions of the self evoke some of the same ideas as Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk. 

It is clear that Mirror Moving Without Me marks a progression of both the aesthetics and sound of Pom Pom Squad and it will be interesting to see how Berrin continues to develop the multi-album narrative that she has been concoting since her 2020 debut.  

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0D1VuKK2MQA5d25Nn2gyEK?si=mR95MCOmSq249ngbPDHKCw