Chester French: Love The Future
Chester French order you to Love The Future
Also In The News
|
The final of this year's series of the Apprentice is expected to draw an audience of several million when it is screened on BBC1 this evening. |  |
Monday, 08, Jun 2009 09:26
Interscope, out June 8th.
In a nutshell...
Off-beat, eclectic retro-pop
What's it all about?
Chester French's 13-track debut album is released as a download on Monday June 8th on the eve of their UK tour. Lyrics packed with playful, testosterone-fuelled one-liners are set against a mash-up of various retro pop influences from the Beatles to Johnny Cash. Love the Future overall is a notable departure from the rap sound the band have previously been associated with.
Who's it by?
Chester French are Harvard graduates, DA Wallach and Max Drummey. Perhaps most famous for drummer Max's short-lived Vegas marriage to Peaches Geldof , they are signed with Neptunes' label Star Trak headed up- of course- by Pharell, who featured on their track 'ife in LA.
As an example...
"Well she craves affection/So I used protection/And I know she loves me/She loves everybody." - She Loves Everybody
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Love The Future is too subtle and quirky to receive this level of wide scale recognition.
What the others say
"The end result isn't quite as lovable as they'd like. But the Beach Boys-like brightness of Time to Unwind or the pretty, Fleetwood Mac-ian seduction of Sleep make it hard to deny their melodic gifts."- Rolling Stone
"Could this really be Chester French's first album? Love the Future sounds too wise - and too catchy." - Boston.com
So is it any good?
The slick intelligence at the heart of Love the Future is inescapable. With the perfect renditions of Spanish guitar music opening the album and the elaborate classical strings interlude halfway through set to muffled and sinewy vocals, complete generic microcosms are recreated flawlessly throughout.
The overriding retro-pop sound is constantly cut up with chaotic guitars and organs and modern sounding synths, so that nothing ever sounds derivative, despite clear, careful reference dropping throughout.
The lyrics are crisp and poetic, with songs like Fingers, carrying strong Beatles' echoes and even the self-consciously juvenile tone of songs like Bebe Buell and She Loves Everybody still stays sharp and ironic.
As far as criticisms of the album go - there is a tendency to sound a bit too much like the Beach Boys for far too long in places. The regular beat-box intrusions are increasingly jarring. There is also a tendency - in amongst the irony - to be quite patronising to the female subjects frequently addressed.
Love the Future is seamless and impressive in its overall impact, although amid the sustained irony, it can lack a sense of engagement.
7/10
Julia Ross