Operator Please - 'Yes Yes Vindictive' (Brille) Released 17/03/08

Their entrance to centre stage via the playground may appear to be the handy work of a media hungry PR agency looking for kitsch value, however, Operator Please’ rise to fame after winning a battle of the bands competition and signing a major record deal as a result is the – albeit far-fetched – truth behind their naissance.

Operator Please’ beguiling success may appear anecdotal and contrived, but their youthful precociousness from thereon not only won them the adoration of the Australian public for reinvigorating its indie mainstream with their zealous pop appeal and high-octane shows, but also worldwide veneration. (‘Get What You Want’ was declared the Hottest Record In The World by Zane Lowe and broadcast within 24 hours of it being mastered.)

Accordingly, their debut album ‘Yes Yes Vindictive’ has been met with animated anticipation by the foregoing public. Its resulting 12 tracks of riotous schoolyard punk-pop glisten with a hubristic and exultant youthful nature that takes pride in elementally verging indie mainstream.

‘Yes Yes Vindictive’, however, is to be taken at face value if to be seen as having any serious intentions, and is as much a pop album as a teenager is obstinate: ‘Just A Song About Ping Pong’ and ‘Cringe’ bounce inoffensively with twee hocks shrink-wrapped in a commercial seal of approval, whereas ‘Two For My Second’ and ‘6/8’ waltz with the innocent charms and intentions of McFly at a school disco.

‘Zero Zero’, ‘Get What You Want’, and ‘Ghost’ do show a prodigious divergence and maturation away from the generic polished pop that one will expect, but the exhilaration and brashness of their live performances has been killed in the album’s production in exchange for something that will sell a pretty penny to a pop idolising public.