After releasing a couple of high-caliber EPs and having their song "Come Home" licensed for an Apple iPod commercial, when Brooklyn psych-rockers
CHAPPO
released their debut LP, 2012's
Moonwater
, they really appeared to put their best foot forward. It was full of both attitude and vulnerability, versatile without being disjointed, tremendously fun and loose, but also experienced- and confident-sounding; a go-big-or-go-home-type release. It turns out that's just the band, because three years later,
Future Former Self
brings it from beginning to end, too. It's a concept album about protagonist Rene, who travels through a black hole and experiences distorted memories, emotions, and senses of self, time, and place (which occasions lyrics like "It's just the universe/It happened years ago"). However, a narrative isn't really apparent without prior knowledge and is pretty hazy even with it, and that's OK because the concept best serves as a heads-up that things are going to get weird and maybe extraordinary. A mixed analog and digital production, the record hits on some style influences, including the sparse and anxious
Between the Buttons
Stones
-evoking ballad "Something's Ringing" (which is clearly about either tinnitus or space travel), the '70s cowbell metal in "Orange Afternoon," and the funky disco romp "Mad Magic," featuring the blown-up rhythm section of keyboardist
Chris Olson
and drummer
Zac Colwell
. All this and more are done with
's distinct voice and production -- again mixed by
Steve Wall
(
Lucius
,
Gretchen Parlato
) and produced by
Colwell
, this time along with
Wall
-- for a sound that's like if
Michael Hutchence
-era
INXS
and
the Flaming Lips
traveled back in time to the '70s and had a love child at an arena rock show, in space. Standout songs include the driving, trippy, irresistibly dance-provoking "I'm Not Ready," which highlights lead singer and band namesake
Alex Chappo
's nettled falsetto as he transforms "try" into a two-syllable word, and the super-grooving "I Don't Need the Sun," which incorporates birds, crowd noise, guitarist
Dave Feddock
's syncopated hooks, and a song-long rant that includes: "I don't need the sea to keep me swimming/I don't need the sun to keep me warm/I don't need the sky to keep me dreaming/I don't need the beach to calm me down." Established fans of the band will surely be pleased, and many others will be disarmed; like
is full of sass, grooves, sexiness, sugar, spice, and astronaut tales. Rene would say it's a trip. ~ Marcy Donelson