Jen Pop is closing a chapter. Before she leaves for Ireland, she made sure to put on tape the music she has been carrying with her.
Pop co-founded The Bombpops, the San Diego punk band whose 2020 album “Death in Venice Beach” was released on Fat Wreck Chords the same day pandemic lockdowns began. Despite the timing, the record earned attention from NPR and built a fanbase that held. She later traveled to Philadelphia to record “East Side of Eden” with producer Will Yip — a record that stepped away from punk entirely and did not apologize for it.
Since then, Pop has been playing acoustic: her own songs, other artists’ songs, whatever the moment called for. That repertoire now has a home. “Borrowed & Blue,” a seven-track collection recorded in her bedroom without a click track, is out June 6 on blue 10-inch vinyl and CD, with pre-orders available now.
“I really thought I had to sacrifice something and just suck it up and do it to a click,” Pop said. “But in the end I felt strongly about not doing it that way. I wanted the rawness to be there.”
The album opens with “Like a Weight,” an original written about a friend. It is followed by “Dilaudid,” a Mountain Goats cover that fits here the way John Darnielle’s writing always does — fingernails-on-the-edge, holding on. “Barstool Thrones” came out of a 4 a.m. detour at Riot Fest, when Pop found herself in a bar that felt like the people inside had never left. Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” arrives mid-record and earns its place. “Bender,” which first appeared on “East Side of Eden,” is presented here in its original form. “There’s something really satisfying about having this song recorded raw with grittier vocals,” Pop said. “It gives a different edge to it.” “CA in July” is deconstructed until its core meaning surfaces. The record closes with “The Idiots Are Taking Over,” a NOFX cover that was the first thing Pop reached for the morning the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She had a tour booked that week.
A bonus digital single, “Notre Dame” — reimagined from “Death in Venice Beach” — drops June 6 alongside the album.
“The only thing I feel like I have control over is myself, and so I’m doing the best I can with that,” Pop said. “Turns out it’s very liberating.”
She has new material waiting.
“Borrowed & Blue” is available for pre-order. Blue 10-inch vinyl and CDs ship June 6.
