In New York, we have a free-form radio program on Sunday nights
\ncalled “Idiots Delight.” One night, the DJ, Vin Scelsa, got excited
\nabout this new band called the New Radicals. He described their
\nmusic as a melding of 1970’s Todd Rundgren and 1980’s Prince. Being
\na fan of both, that made me sit up and take notice. And when he
\nplayed the first single, “You Get What You Give”, the sound was
\nunmistakable. The music and the song is definitely influenced by
\nPrince, and it is the piano playing by Richard Knowles and the
\nchord changes that remind me of Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me.”<\/p>\n
And that is pretty much what you get throughout the audicious
\nnew album by The New Radicals called
\nMaybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too<\/i>. The brains behind the
\nband is guitarist Gregg Alexander, who surprisingly looks like a
\nyoung, small town midwesterner, sort of like Woody from the TV show
\n“Cheers,” not the sort of person you would expect doing this kind
\nof funky music. The song “Technicolor Lover” sounds so much like
\nPrince, you might think it is him playing some sort of hoax. And on
\nthis cut, Alexander plays all the instruments in true
\nPrince\/Rundgren fashion.<\/p>\n
There are a few possibilities for the next singles: my choices
\nwould be either the Rundgrenesque ballad of love lost “Someday
\nWe’ll Know,” the funky first song “Mother We Just Can’t Get
\nEnough,” or the midtempo R&B ballad, “Gotta Stay High.” The
\nremaining songs on the album are an odd combination of songs about
\nGod and drugs, and in the song “Flowers” there is a little of both.
\nBut when the music is this good, who really cares?<\/p>\n
“Jehovah Made This Whole Joint For You” is a winning religious
\nsong which comes off more clever than preachy. It is actually funny
\nthe way Alexander depicts the non-believers as “So original in her
\nblack lipstick, listening to obscure bands”. But the best song of
\nall might be, in a different twist, a love song with religious
\nmetaphors. “Crying Like A Church On Monday” sounds like a gospel
\ntune, dominated by piano and bass. But it is actually about him
\ntrying to win back his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
The New Radicals do share some of the flaws of both Prince and
\nRundgren. Like those two artists, sometimes the performances are a
\nbit over-the-top. “I Hope I Just Didn’t Give Away The Ending” is
\nclever at times but is also occasionally grating, especially the
\nbeginning where he sings nonsense lyrics. And the title song is a
\nthrowaway that goes on way too long.<\/p>\n
However, if you can forgive Prince and Rundgren for their
\nexcesses, then why not the New Radicals?
\nMaybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too<\/i> is a fun album, with many
\ncool songs, and a truly original, off-center outlook. And let me
\nalso add that it is nice to hear an R&Bish album that uses
\nacoustic piano instead of synthesizers, for a change. All in all,
\nit is Alexander’s obvious enthusiasm for his music that especially
\nmakes this album worthwhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":24909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6046],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36114","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-new-radicals","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36114"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36114"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}