Silver＜Colored Vinyl＞

These three harmonizing singers packing serious lyrical wit made their album debut in late 2022 and continued apace into the next year. Nya Gazelle Brown, Sabrina Cunningham, and Piya Malik reimagined SWVs new jack ballad "Weak" as a late-60s Memphis soul date, stepped in the marina to more faithfully cover Jim Spencers obscure AOR truffle "Wrap Myself in Your Love," and released their third proper single before rolling out the first results of sessions they cut live with previous collaborators Orgone. The flexible, R&B-rooted band that backed the women on their debut 7" are copacetic support on second album Silver. A lavish exhibit of the trios talents, Silver is over twice the length of the charmingly scruffy Prism, allowing more space for them to stretch out as vocalists and further prove that songs about societal issues like bodily autonomy and gun control can thrill as much as those about seduction and affection. Its also truer to their self-applied "discodelic" descriptor. "Cest Si Bon," the polylingual prime example, shouts out Chic, makes sonic links with the S.O.S. Band and Five Special, and has joie de vivre to spare like Eartha Kitts song of the same title, impelling listeners to "Tell them what you want" with a message that "We will be heard." (Its indestructible groove brilliantly regenerates after an operatic breakdown.) A close second to that is the brisk "Reeling," a call to "Kick the door down, smash the ceiling" over a driving bassline. The rhythm section shows a spiraling lightness of touch on "Astral Plane," the songs skyward swirling dancefloor action generated just as much by the singers impeccably layered high notes. Theres equal power in the slower and funkier material. "Entry Level" could go off on a Head Hunters-era Herbie Hancock tangent if it didnt end so abruptly with the disposal of a sexist boss. "Questions," broiling funk, urges to challenge oppressive forces. Its appropriate that the groups tribute to feminist art-punk activists the Guerilla Girls -- the keyboard-driven "Forget Me Not," their initial single -- reappears here, integral as side threes first song rather than a tacked-on bonus. ~ Andy Kellman

3人の女性シンガーを前面に据えたブルックリンのバンドがデビュー作から1年で新作を発表。レトロ・ソウル界隈の腕利きたちによるサイケ感の滲む演奏をバックに妖しいヴォーカル/ハーモニーを披露する楽曲は前作の延長線上にあるが、曲数が増えたぶん音の表情は多彩に。シックを思わせるディスコやマイアミ系のグルーヴィーなファンクなどが淀みなく展開される快作だ。
bounce (C)林剛