It took
Chris Storrow
all of nine years to craft a full-length album as
Bossanova
, after several EPs and compilation tracks, but if anyone was afraid the results would be some sort of overcooked
indie pop
answer to
Chinese Democracy
, fear not --
Hey Sugar
is fresh and spontaneous sounding stuff, with its synthesizer lines clean and gleaming and the beats infectiously propulsive whether they're emulating vintage
disco
or
Merseybeat
. While not everything on
is dance material -- the moody confessional of
"It Felt Like a Weight"
and the appropriately named
"Lullaby"
certainly don't qualify -- the lion's share of the disc gets its groove on in a pleasing variety of styles, from the sensuous sway of
"Blue Bossanova"
and the cool Euro-
pulse of
"Rare Brazil"
to the
glam rock
accents of
"I'll Leave of My Heart"
and the keyboard-accented
pop/rock
of
"Calvary."
Storrow
and his varied collaborators manage to give this set a unified feel while allowing each song to have a personality of its own, and his knack for
pop
melodies of all stripes is commendable. As a lyricist,
isn't quite as distinctive, and on some songs the vocals are pushed deep enough into the mix to suggest that he knows it, but this doesn't affect the craft of the music or the fact his gift with melodies confirms he should strive to make albums a lot more often. Not every musician has the maturity of vision on their first full album that
can claim on
, which suggests waiting until the time is right has definite advantages. ~ Mark Deming