Dirty Loops
' full-length debut album, 2014's
Loopified
, showcases the Swedish trio's ambitious jazz, prog rock, R&B, and electronic dance-inflected pop music. Formed in 2008,
feature the talents of vocalist/keyboardist
Jonah Nilsson
, bassist
Henrik Linder
, and drummer
Aaron Mellergardh
. All three members studied jazz and classical music in college and spent several years working as session musicians before forming
as an outlet to express their own eclectic, far-reaching musical vision. Working with manager/producer
Andreas Carlsson
(as well as executive producer
David Foster
), the group has put together an album that's one part jazz fusion trio, one part electronic dance outfit, and one part contemporary pop act. Impressively, it also ends up being much more than the sum of its parts.
certainly have chops to spare and layer each track with enough jazz-informed chord progressions, arpeggiated six-string basslines, frenetic drum fills, and melismatic vocal breakdowns to fill any number of
Stevie Wonder
albums (to name-drop an obvious influence). Thankfully, they also don't forget to bring the pop melody, and cuts like the leadoff "Hit Me," the energetic club anthem "Sexy Girls," and the buoyant "Take on the World" grab you with immediately infectious hooks built largely around
Nilsson
's highly resonant, charismatic croon. In reality, the tracks on
aren't really all that dissimilar to any number of modern pop hits from
Justin Timberlake
or
Bruno Mars
. The difference is primarily in
' high level of technical skill and jazz-infused progressions that lend a deeper harmonic nuance and maturity to their songs, even when they are singing about "sexy girls in the club." Ironically, besides a few cheeky lyrical asides, there's not too much that's very dirty or even musically messy about
here. On the contrary,
is an innovative, pure musical vision of jazzy, infectious, crystalline-produced, club-ready pop. ~ Matt Collar