Album Review: Neil Frances Are Nostalgic In Took A While
Nostalgia should be a genre in music. There are some artists that really do summon a feeling of “looking back”. Neil Frances’ Took A While might as well be called “Remember, that great summer we had!” This album feels as warm and relaxing as we think our past was compared to our present: where we are, probably, sitting under a broken A/C wondering if we can “wing it” on rent and go to Costa Rica.
From “Come Back Around” to “Day Dreamer,” Neil Frances, the duo of Marc Gilfry and Jordan Feller, takes you back in rhythm and verse. Yet, usually, we “look back” on our life when we wish we were not in a certain, present position like in “dumb love” and “show me the right”. It is not that our life is horrible, but it just does not feel like “ours”. Thus, Feller’s rhythms/ lyrics may spark a retrospect but they are, sonically, geared for the future; pressing together synths and baselines as if making a digitized track was the equivalent to making a ham and cheese sandwich. Meanwhile, Gilfry’s voice sounds easy, fulfilling, and like a music “go to” when you feel your “playlist kitchen” is empty.
I said it with Tirzah, and I will say it again with Neil Frances, there are SO MANY ARTISTS coming out with simple voices over beats that could be considered virtual realities. It just goes to show how the pendulum swings. Twenty years ago we were addicted to big voices, like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, over simple chords; allowing vocal divas to emotionally tear into beautiful, aciculate melodies. Now, voices are rather limited in range, straight in tone, but supple and richly soft in emotiveness. It as if we have changed from wanting to see the force of feeling to observing its quiet, constant nature. Now, it is rhythms that envelop voices rather than vice versa becoming symbolic of how people feel swallowed by the world.
Neil Frances’ tone straightens around beats that bend like palms in a summer breeze, which is why if you like Tame Impala or Unknown Mortal Orchestra then you will love him. They fit right up there in understanding that a soundscape can be vast and widening as a good, piece of literature. Feller writes his arrangements as if each instrumental was a world, and Gilfry respects his vocal place as the guide to each one. Frankly, Take A While shows a soothing sound can be electrifying. For More Information On Neil Frances And To Buy Took A While On August 17 Click Here.
