Huh! I was hard into this guy / these guys in college, jamming to Half Baked Serenade and Gizmodgery, following the label-quashed Ornament and Crime debacle with much chagrin. But this was just about the last band I expected to make a comeback around now. I guess if NMH and MBV can do it anyone can.
Opening track Runaway's apparently even got almost half a million plays on Spotify (??), and deservedly, its a fun little swinger, build on a huge synth bass surge and a typical hooky Self chorus. The rest is enjoyable, if a bit quietly so: there's hints of Gizmodgery's tinniness, some offkilter breaks and bridges, a good dose of ELO's dense // quirky soaring, plenty of those dips into Princy soul.
This is basically the same soul-funk-pop that Self put out 15 (!) years ago on Selfafornia - still fun, though I still feel like there's another gear, 20+ years on, that this band's yet to find. Call me an optimist 3.5/5
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