There is a subspecialty among furniture artisans that specializes in making newer things appear older. Sometimes the retro piece you have in mind isn\u2019t available, so you take something more recent and use tricks of the trade to make it feel vintage.<\/p>\n
This is a paragraph about the Legal Matters.<\/p>\n
Once heralded as an \u201cindie supergroup\u201d\u2014which honestly feels like an oxymoron\u2014the Legal Matters unites Michigan singer-songwriters Keith Klingensmith, Andy Reed and Chris Richards in the cause of making brand new music with a distinct retro flair. It\u2019s three guys who found one another via a shared love for classic sounds, with familiar threads of the Beatles, Beach Boys, Kinks, Hollies, Big Star and Badfinger (among others) woven into the fabric of their songs.<\/p>\n
That said, a lot of times with these sorts of collaborations, you get one or maybe two albums out of them and they\u2019ve said what they had to say, made the sound they wanted to make, and moved on. The Legal Matters, by contrast, remain a going concern 12 years and now four albums into their run. Their 2014 self-titled debut and 2016\u2019s follow up Conrad<\/i> were both on Omnivore; 2021\u2019s Chapter Three<\/i> was on Futureman Records; and their new album Lost At Sea<\/i> is being issued by Big Stir Records, a Burbank, CA indie label specializing in power pop and pop rock.<\/p>\n
It would be interesting to report that Lost At Sea<\/i> represents a sea change* in their approach and sound (*sorry, had to). It doesn\u2019t. The one real shift this time was in the process that took them from idea to finished product. Rather than the individual writers working up demos of songs and presenting them to the band, this time around each writer brought an idea, riff, concept or lyrical hook to the group, and they built the songs together from there in true collaborative fashion.<\/p>\n
While the results of this approach don\u2019t differ noticeably in terms of sound\u2014the chiming guitars, layered harmonies, quirky arrangements, and clever lyrical pokes and prods all remain present\u2014there is something to this synergistic approach, in that each songs feels a little more like it\u2019s greater than the sum of its parts. It also feels like there is an extra measure of attention to detail and musical textures that benefits the entire production.<\/p>\n
Opener and first single \u201cEverybody Knows\u201d shows this off immediately, a richly layered and textured number whose almost symphonic melancholy recalls Badfinger in particular. Both it and driving, harmony-rich second track \u201cThe Message\u201d\u2014think Beach Boys\u00a0<\/i>reimagined by Alex Chilton and Dave Davies\u2014address the collective societal unease and uncertainty referenced in the album title.<\/p>\n
Similarly flavorful nods to musical antecedents are sprinkled throughout the track list, from \u201cTemporary Thing\u201d (orchestral pop with hints of country) to \u201cStuck With Me\u201d (airy\/echoey 1965 British Invasion) to \u201cMarching On,\u201d a 1967 psych-jangle fiesta with dashes of both mellotron and boogie piano, and big harmonies on chorus. Both of the latter two tracks also spotlight guest drummer Donny Brown in the early going.<\/p>\n
The guys lean into their affection for lush classicist chamber pop in numbers like \u201cShake The Feeling\u201d and \u201cSlow Down\u201d; it\u2019s a sound they pull off well that doesn\u2019t particularly appeal to this listener (different strokes). Tastier to these ears is \u201cIt Doesn\u2019t Matter,\u201d a slow-building anthem whose layered arrangement gets big, thrummy and Big Star-manic.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet Me Explain\u201d is a rather melodramatic mid-tempo cut with lots of orchestration and late-Beatles \/ Badfinger in its bones, a tad overwrought but compelling for all that. The group\u2019s Beatles love reaches its apex with closer \u201cThe Exit Signs,\u201d which sounds like Abbey Road<\/i> and Pet Sounds<\/i> had a baby.<\/p>\n
Klingensmith, Reed and Richards have studied the masters and adopted a sonic environment that they not only feel comfortable in, but genuinely love. And\u2014by the way\u2014you should do what you genuinely love, every chance you get. That\u2019s kind of the point, especially when you\u2019re an independent musical artist in today\u2019s world. If you\u2019re not loving what you\u2019re doing, I\u2019m not too clear on why you\u2019re doing it at all.<\/p>\n
For fans of classic rock and\/or classicist power pop, the Legal Matters make musical comfort food that goes down easy and leaves you feeling warm inside. Lost At Sea <\/i>is a terrific collection of brand-new songs dressed in vintage clothes, a warm and familiar sound just waiting to welcome you back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9487],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-47331","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-legal-matters","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47331","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=47331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47331"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}