Rating: NNNN
Brooklyn’s Lake Street Dive pull off retro while still sounding very contemporary. Perhaps that’s because the band’s various influences (classic pop/rock, R&B and jazz) are funnelled through the songwriting of three members and the pipes of the fourth – powerful vocalist Rachael Price – resulting in their own sound.
Many of the best songs (including the opening title track) were written by Bridget Kearney, whose slow, creeping bass line on Better Than is addictive. But Mike Olson and Mike Calabrese’s contributions are almost as strong, sometimes recalling the Jackson 5.
The songs are about working through the pain of love, but what comes across on record is joyous, kind of like contemporary indie rockers revisiting the vibe of Laura Nyro working with Patti LaBelle on 1971’s Gonna Take A Miracle – though admittedly not nearly as wild.
Top track: Bad Self Portraits
Lake Street Dive play the Horseshoe Friday (March 28).
