Album Review: BadBadNotGood Show Late Night Tales For Everyone

BadBadNotGood have risen to support some of the best artists of our time because they are some of the best musicians of our time. Their newest album Late Night Tales feels like you are driving through the town in a 1970’s Impala deciding if you want a good time, some trouble, or both. With horns, strings, and percussive instrumentals blazing in a funkadelic haze, for two hours and 22 songs, life feels very bad and good in this record.

If you like funkadelic jazz, and enjoy, at times, to pretend in your mind it was living in another era, then Late Night Tales is for you. After listening to songs such as “Home Is Where The Hatred Is” by Esther Phillips, “Disco Dancer” by Kiki Ryan, and “Baby” by Donnie & Joe Emerso, I wish there were a giant cos-play event for those interested in acting like they are from the 70’s. Personally, I could not stop thinking how badly greats like, Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye would have killed to work with BadBadNotGood. This is right up their alley, which is why it is such a particular album. They have gathered a lot of the international hits of yesteryear that no longer define mainstream radio, but still manage to feel like the music to put on for every drive. It lyrically and sonically captures the feelings of being bum-rushed by your own ineptitude to understand how life works. From “The Meaning of Love” by Steve Kuhn to “Work” by Mura Masa, these tracks feel like the songs you would play after a bad fight with a lover or boss, and embody that frustrated mind-frame we get into when our best did not get great results or rightful acknowledgement. Hence, beyond being a delicious, music time-warp, Late Night Tales is also a series of songs/ episodes on how the night-time either lights up in fun “Vida Antiga” by Erasmo Carlos or feels like a mystical bombardment of emotions “West” by, again, the rising star Mura Masa. Either way, I am for it, and it makes this album a giant bag of emotional selections. Moreover, Daniel Caesar, Lydia Lynch, Thundercat, and Steve Kuhn lend their vocals to simmer the already sultry instrumentals of BadBadNotGood.

I absolutely LOVE Late Night Tales, and would recommend it to anyone who likes music that sparks imagination or misses the beauty of retro-jazz. Coming out on July 28, this BadBadNotGood record might be one of their best and most ambitious. Click Here To Buy.