Good Times Ahead

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:38:08
Recording information: 4220 Feng Shui Studios, Hollywood, CA; KMG Life Syudios; Studio Trilogy, San Francisco, CA. Good Times Ahead, the eponymous debut LP from Miami electronic duo GTA, is a party of a different sort. With such a title, one might expect an all-out hedonistic EDM assault. However, the album ends up being the soundtrack for sophisticated revelers. Split between languid R&B vocalists and young rappers, Good Times Ahead sustains its deep groove from start to finish. On the hip-hop side, Vince Staples brings the heat to album standout "Little Bit of This," a tick-tocking hypnotizer featuring his breathless rapping, while Iamsu provides the hardest hit on the raucous "Contract." Backed by the Imogen Heap-esque harmonies of Alyssa Palmer and Jessica Higgs, Philly rapper Tunji Ige makes a turn as a more-interesting Drake on "Feel It." Among the smooth soulful numbers, the woozy "Get It All" -- a collaboration with Wax Motif that features Australian singer Kaelyn Behr on vocals -- and "True Romance" -- featuring Dominican singer Jarina de Marco -- are seductive standouts. Good Times Ahead is rounded out by purer '90s-influenced house ("Heartbeat" and "In My Nature") to further GTA's "death to genres" mantra. There's no doubt that these are all body-movers, but the pair -- Julio Mejia and Matthew Van Toth -- draw upon such a variety of influences that the party they purvey never gets boring. ~ Neil Z. Yeung