Music for Time Travelers
A+
I stumbled onto this entirely by coincidence because of an article about this album being the first ever to be released as an embeddable HTML5 widget. Sometimes the internet is full of happy coincidences. What I found was an album that’s so new and fresh, yet could easily have been recorded in 1985 and no one would have thought it was out of place. I’m not entirely convinced that Francis didn’t actually time travel from the 80′s to 2006 to capitalize on the cyclical nature of music appreciation.
Frontman Francis Farewell Starlite conjures essences of 80′s greats Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Prince in his vocal stylings, and in the video for ‘Darling, It’s Alright,’ even manages to conjure up some Rick Astley with his random and awesome dance at the end.
It starts off strong with a gentle guitar arpeggio and a trucking, simple rim-shot / bass drum beat with a shaker in the back, with the title track, ‘It’ll Be Better,’ keeping it simple for just under three minutes before jumping into the second song, which quickly became my favorite track.
Hello synth! Hello piano! Hello Genesis-esque vocal processing! This song just does everything right, adding in little synth flares at just the right places, grimy synth bass rumbling throughout from the beginning of this song to the end of the album, and a sweet little guitar solo about three minutes in. “Hey look at all the promise!” he sings, and I’m seeing it. This has promise.
For days comes in with challenging rhythms that inspire me to get out of my seat and dance around the apartment, but I’ll resist the urge while writing this review. A great rhythm is all in the rests, and these guys know just when to stop and when to start.
Knees to the Floor conjures images of a post-breakup bar crawl. The chorus is sweet and manages to make a line like “Headed for the city an hour away” full of heartache, stuck in the car with your thoughts about what you could have done right, but now it’s over. About three and a half minutes the track climaxes with synth bass and synth strings that overwhelm the senses.
Darling, It’s Alright battles with In a Limousine for the number one slot in my heart. Francis pushes to the top of his vocal range, howling, “I said it’s all right!” and I don’t know that it is all right, but man is it beautiful. They manage to top this moment in the breakdown that carries out to the end, starting when the band stops and makes room for a sweet little keyboard riff, then jumps back in for a climactic ending. At two minutes, this song is really short, inspiring many repeat listens.
After a beautiful gem like Darling, It’s Alright, Going out doesn’t offer anything new to the album, but is still a great song in its own right, and in keeping with the overall tone and groove established from the second track. “If you’re going to play a sad song on the radio, make it the saddest song of all time,” makes for probably the most poignant line of the whole album, so this song definitely deserves credit for that. This song also features an incredible guitar solo toward the end.
Tap the Phone is a slow-moving, hand-clapping, head-bobbing tune depicting the artist’s isolation while on tour, singing, “I’ll tap the phone, take a taxi home, right a song for the radio; then I can hear you when you’re on the phone and you can hear me on the radio.”
Get in the Car feels like an epilogue to what came before, starting off as a sparse and simple melody and climaxing with an uprising of strings.
But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the entire album with the widget embedded at the top of this post.
