Media Credit: Courtesy [Click to enlarge] The face of pop music has been anything but constant over the years. From the girl-group pop of The Supremes to the synth pop of The Human League, the genre has always been adaptable to current trends and sensibilities. Even so, pop musicians, regardless of the time period, have tended to write songs without a lot of backbone, favoring cheery love songs laden with harmonies and almost childish imagery over songs concerned with war, death and poverty.

Pop songwriters tend toward the girlie rather than the burly, and that’s why Melbourne, Australia’s Muscles, his moniker being suggestive as it is, will surprise many listeners in search of simple pop with his full-length debut, “Guns Babes Lemonade.” This is by no means a straight pop record, but it is a pop record nonetheless and quite a good one at that.

Muscles has the harmonies, the oohs and ahhs, and the tendency toward lyrics that are fun just for fun’s sake (”Ice cream is going to save the day again!”) Muscles Who: Australian dance-pop artist Muscles What: “Guns Babes Lemonade,” Muscles’ debut album The dish: Muscles has the harmonies, the oohs and ahhs, and the tendency toward lyrics that are fun for fun’s sake. But, the track list doesn’t deviate from a loud, cheery mood, sometimes making the transitions between songs almost imperceptible.

Rating: 3 of 5 stars But for every quality Muscles has in common with all the pop artists who came before him, there’s something else that sets him apart. Muscles harmonizes with himself, all sung in his atypically raucous singing voice. And that bit about ice cream saving the day? It comes just after he supposes he might be stabbed and left bleeding on the ground.