EP Review: Neil Frances
words by hunter sanders
Sparse and energetic, the beat comes in, unexpected but refreshing, like a sudden burst of energy at 2 am as you’re finishing up that final essay for that one class but haven’t quite figured out a way to start. This is what it is to experience the newest EP to be released from Neil Frances. Though some of the songs have already been released (“Ask Me Anything”, “Show Me The Right”, and “Dumb Love”) the songs, when all together on one EP, tell a groovy narrative of daily life in post-modern world.
Evocative of deep funk, with spacey sampling ethereal vocals, the opening song, "Coming Back Around," sets an eerie jive precedent. Like I said, it’s extremely energetic but It isn’t erratic or overdone. The vocals are persistent but gentle and understated, while the harmonies are not only contrasted in high and low notes but in hifi and lofi. It provides texture. Jazz notes and lazer noises create a dreamscape of something alien and interesting. Each word is pulled back into the recesses of the harmonies and distortions which draw us back, back into the playlist.
As we enter the the threshold of this EP, "Ask Me Anything" slips right out of the first, instating an 80s ballad groove. It does not resolve the energy. It lets the listener hang in the build eternally. If "Coming Back Around" is a burst of energy at 2am, Ask Me Anything is a burst of nostalgia at 2am. It drives forward, but it strikes the listener more like a cruise. We’re becoming comfy. We’re getting going. Ask Me Anything could very well be the song your mom danced to at the prom, permed, in a royal blue sequined dress with those sleeves. You know the sleeves.
The third and fourth instalments of the EP, "Took A While" and "Daydreamer," takes the energy and pull it down in "Took A While" and bring it back up to the pitch of "Coming Back Around." It’s like that part in the cha-cha slide when everybody gets low, but then they get back up. We’re going down for a second, but only so that we can have the fun of getting back up again. Honestly, "Daydreamer" slaps. It will be an excellent concert song, and I’m certain it was created for that express purpose.
"Show Me The Right" is . Hearkening to the aforementioned funk and pushing into an R&B space that is unexpected but oh so delicious, this second to last song is a tune to get down to. It makes me feel feelings. The bass is such that I salivated.
"Dumb Love" sends us off. It’s lively, thick with riffs and radiates a celebratory energy of an unexamined and all-encompassing love. It is the credits music for the dreamy film that is the rest of the EP. It ripples with sound and it washes over you. As weird as it sounds, "Dumb Love" is very refreshing. You’ve listened to the whole EP at this point, and you’ve experienced a wide variety of emotions and grooves. "Dumb Love" rewards you. If Took A While EP is a movie, this is the after-credits song you won’t get out of your head for two weeks after.
Not to push the point, but this is the EP to sashay into class with. Strong, low beats that build over time and never sacrifice the dreamy and ethereal, this playlist is perfect for waking up slowly into a happy consciousness. It’s black cup of joe; you may be really flatlined, but after thirty minutes of steady sippin’, you won’t be.