You know all that side chain compression he used for the last album “Causers of This”? Well, that’s gone. What you get now is pure organic, airy-sounding music. Each instrument is fully distinguishable. Few samples were used in the recording either. Instead, he’s moved away from the dictionary definition of chillwave. It is still chill music, but just clearer, more direct, and with a funkier sense of being. Even as rumors came out about this album, he released live takes of his pre-existing songs, showing off a talent lacked by many of his contemporaries from the South Carolina scene.
If Chaz Bundick was responsible for chillwave’s increasing popularity and inspiration, I have a fairly good idea of what will happen upon this part of his career. Finally, the thing I thought would never happen has happened: Stereolab 60s French Pop worship will become an actual popular genre, just like I hoped. There’s a very distinguishable influence of theirs you can feel on some of these songs, particularly “Go With You” and “Got Blinded” which might have come from their latter-day material with sunny vocals and a driving rhythm. Another song would be one of my favorites “How I Know”. This one shows off his voice, which seems to have grown stronger since his last outing, helping me connect with it a little better. 60s vibes are found throughout the songs, whether it is from latter-day practitioners or true 60s innovators. The vocals give off the same warm feeling you get from the Beach Boys, complete with their same level of wonder.
It is less compressed or slick. The recordings are surprisingly clear for a guy who used to embrace those murkier sounds like those found on his last outing. Plus, looking at the track lengths, he’s grown accustomed to working in larger formats. “Elisa” clocks in at 6 minutes, an amount of time where he usually could stuff in 2-3 songs, and ends the album in a grand fashion. Having the songs stretch out allows him to explore a few little flourishes of piano or vocal experiments that would be unwieldy in shorter songs, like the vocal panning in “How I Know” halfway in, or towards the end in “New Beat” with the playful keyboard.
Overall, this is a big improvement over his last outing. It is less electronic, so that might bother some people. Just keep in mind the album is a bit of a grower, so please give it the proper amount of listens before passing judgment. Summer came early this year I guess.