Papas Fritas is an indie rock band hailing from Boston. They
\nderive their name from the Spanish term for fried potatoes. And if
\nthat seems like a weird name to give a band, it is actually a play
\non words. Their publishing company is called Pop Has Freed Us. Get
\nit? And it is that kind of cleverness that distinguishes their new
\nCD,
\nBuildings And Grounds<\/i>, from the rest of the indie rock
\npack.<\/p>\n
The music on
\nBuildings And Grounds<\/i> ranges from quirky (but always catchy)
\npop ditties to mellow and reflective ballads. The mood of the song
\noften depends on who sang and wrote the song. Guitarist Tony
\nGoddess’ songs lean more toward the former, while drummer Shivika
\nAsthana’s songs are more of the latter. Like the Beatles Lennon and
\nMcCartney, the differences in approach and attitude make for an
\ninteresting team.<\/p>\n
However, that said, also like Lennon and McCartney, they do not
\nalways follow such stereotypes. For starters, Goddess starts the CD
\nwith the ballad “Girl” (not the Beatles song). His plaintiff vocal
\nand gentle acoustic guitar playing are as tender as it gets. It’s
\nan odd song to start the CD but it works.<\/p>\n
Asthana pipes in on the second song, “People Say”. Since Papas
\nFritas has both male and female lead vocalists, people are bound to
\nthink of Fleetwood Mac, and this song does recall a typical late
\nperiod Christine McVie midtempo ballad. The song has a very breezy
\narrangement which is impressive as this CD is a self-produced
\neffort.<\/p>\n
The third song “Way You Walk” sounds like a slightly jazzier
\nrendition of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” with Goddess and
\nAsthana’s singing a conversation about whether she is faithful to
\nhim. This clever song has a great beat and probably would have been
\na hit in the mid-80’s. The smooth jazz side of Papas Fritas appears
\noccasionally on
\nBuildings And Grounds<\/i>. The mellow sounds of “Far From An
\nAnswer” and “I Believe In Fate” would not be out of place on a
\nsmooth jazz station.<\/p>\n
However, not all of Papas Fritas’ songs are as radio ready.
\n“Questions” sounds like something from the 60’s pop band, the
\nAssociation, but as cute as a button as this song sounds, the
\nlyrics are quite the opposite with lyrics like “Got bit in the ass
\nby a tiger in the zoo\/ and when you got home you just passed out in
\nthe kitchen.”<\/p>\n
If the rest of the songs are not as weird as that one, they have
\ntheir quirks. There’s the Squeeze-influenced story song “Another
\nDay”, with an interesting kinetic keyboard\/percussion backing that
\nmoves the song along nicely. In a more rock vein, albeit a slightly
\noff-center new wave rock vein, is “What Am I Supposed To Do?”.
\nThese two songs certainly are a highlight on
\nBuildings And Grounds<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Bassist Keith Gendel contributes the jaunty and strange
\nsingalong “Vertical Lives” which I dare you to try not to sing
\nalong to it. There are nice, clever lyrics on this one. Rounding
\nout the set, the remainder of Asthana’s songs are more
\nstraightforward but nice andpoppy. “Beside You” and “I’ll Be Gone”
\nare solid melodic songs not unlike a cross between Lesley Gore and
\nthe Bangles.<\/p>\n
It is the last song on
\nBuilidings And Grounds<\/i> that really resonates. The
\ncountry-tinged “Lost In A Dream”. Papas Fritas surprisingly
\nunderstand the emotional tug needed for country while writing a
\nsong that is completely original. The song is about someone who
\nthinks he has lost everything, but his wife\/mate wakes him up to
\ntell him it’s only a dream and everything is all right. I love CD’s
\nthat have a happy ending.<\/p>\n
Indie rock CDs, like low budget movies, are very hit and miss,
\nbut when they do hit, it’s out of the park. Papas Fritas’
\nBuildings And Grounds<\/i> is that kind of a hit. It might take a
\nfew listens to really enjoy the pleasures, but doing so will make
\nyou appreciate that this band has a strong foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":25573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6427],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36779","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-papas-fritas","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36779","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=36779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36779"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36779"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}