Fitz & The Tantrums return with their blue-eyed soul/pop on an album the stands up and demands to be noticed. Their debut album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, was released in 2010, and contained the single "MoneyGrabber" that, although may have been played a couple times on alternative radio, was really nothing but a small blip on the Alternative charts. Three years later the bands sophomore debut shows a band that has learned how to write pop hooks and mature into a sleek potential hit making machine. The chemistry between vocalists Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs remains a considerable strength, and producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, M83, Foster The People) gives everything a nice sheen. Album highlight “6AM” lies somewhere between Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart” and a G-Funk banger. The synth bass and slow groove isn’t far from The Chronic-era Dre, but the imprint of ’80s freestyle danciness is all over it. Hip-hop beats actually make up much of the record’s backbone, from the scratchy breaks of “Keepin' Our Eyes Out” to the big, modern bombast of “House On Fire.”
“The End” takes things back to the bright and shiny band sound again. This one is good but but doesn’t really stick out like some of the others. When this is the first thing that even approaches filler, that is a very good sign. “Get Away” takes us into throwback land, mixing the big Motown sound with a little bit of psychedelic late 60s garage brit-pop. This one is a definite highlight and one to make your feet move. The closing track is “Merry Go Round”, a track about the adventure and the spin that life can be. It has some late 60s style possibly Hammond organ driving it along. This is a great note to end on and one of the more memorable tracks from this great album.
More Than Just A Dream is definitely one of my favorite releases of the year so far. It is simply twelve songs of feel good soulful (mostly) blue-eyed pop. It’s completely genuine. Soul only works when the musicians truly feel it unlike what many look at today as soul music, these guys do. I really hope that Fitz & The Tantrums continue to have a big breakout year because with material this strong, they deserve it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment