Remember the surrealistic Bob Dylan biopic I\u2019m Not There<\/i>, in which Cate Blanchett, among others, was cast as the chameleonic Bobby Z?\u00a0 Well, riffing on that theme, imagine if the director moved on to a Motown biopic in which he cast the Arcade Fire in the role of Sly & The Family Stone.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what the hell that would sound like, but it probably wouldn\u2019t sound unlike<\/i> The Americans.<\/p>\n
That is the case because this band of six very white guys and gals delivers classic-Motown-inspired soul music with the ramshackle exuberance of the truly fearless.\u00a0 There are moments when this EP feels like it must a bizarre parody of some sort\u2014until the adrenaline kicks in again and it returns to feeling like someone finally figured out how to bottle pure joy and convert it to ones and zeroes.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cTry (Nobody Wants To)\u201d finds Charlie Klarsfeld (lead vocals \/ production), Kyle Olsen (drums), Cissy Clemens (vocals), Corey Dozier (bass), Matt Chef (keyboards) and John Stenesco (sax) quickly establishing the vibe of classic soul reimagined by modern lo-fi indie rockers.\u00a0 Once Aussie guest Daniel Merriweather sings the bridge and Clemens appends a chorus from \u201cHigher And Higher\u201d to the climax of the song, the mission statement is complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Antitode\u201d and \u201cNot Still In Love\u201d riff energetically on classic Motown motifs, from slinky r&b grooves to punchy horns to chorused background vocals, bringing a hint of early Chicago to the former while adding a dash of Supremes to the latter.\u00a0 The stupendously snappy Dap-Kings horn section adds punch to both \u201cAntidote\u201d and \u201cTry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDiamond\u201d is the first cut here that sounds like it was made after 1970, coming off rather like a lost track from Joe Jackson\u2019s 1982 Night & Day<\/i> album, albeit with big, Gordy-esque female background vocals.\u00a0 \u201cRooftop Love\u201d similarly borrows from multiple sources all it once, from Brill Building pop to a certain Beatlesque swirl in the bridge.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Beatlesque, closing cut \u201cRequiem\u201d notably guest-stars Sean Lennon on a number that opens in panoramic Brian Wilson form before Lennon\u2019s dreamy background vocals drape the chorus in poignance and the ascending guitar asserts itself for the Abbey Road<\/i>-like bridge.<\/p>\n
The Americans caught me in the mood for some finger-snapping soul and I\u2019m glad of it.\u00a0 The White EP<\/i> swings and grooves and pulls sweetness from the air in a hundred ways, mixing sonic flavors old and new like a mad chef to create a platter of kaleidoscopic, nearly perfect pop.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8649],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42169","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-americans-2010","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42169","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42169"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42169"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}