When listening to the recently released debut album by Sammy Rae & the Friends, the first word that comes to mind is “eclectic.” However, that was initially a description that the band was trying to shake off in their earlier years of blending Jazz, Rock, Folk, Retro Soul and any other sounds they wanted to explore. As the album title Something For Everybody suggests, the seven-piece collective from New York finally decided to accept their musical diversity, rather than try to work around it.
“The album Something for Everybody leans into what has previously been a point of confusion and even self-consciousness for this band: what kind of music do we make?,” explains Sammy Rae. “Our genre is hard to pin down, there are all sorts of instruments and influences flying around, and arrangement-wise no two songs sound too much like each other. After seven years of playing, touring, and recording, we’ve come to realize that that simply isn't going away… When looking at what we had and wanted to write for this album, our natural process of ‘what songs come, and what best serves the song, not a genre?’ came forward. We realized that we had a little of everything. It’s a strength of ours, and one of our best assets. The production, vocals, and songwriting voice are the cohesive thread between all of our songs. We basically thought, ‘if we haven't landed on one avenue by now, I guess we never will.’ And that's our superpower.”
Agreeing to embrace their “superpower” worked in the group’s favor on Something For Everybody. The band offers listeners a silky-smooth R&B song with “No Rulebook,” and then shifts into a Disco/Funk vibe with “Cool-Doug, at Night,” a dance song which sounds like it could be straight out of Nile Rodgers’ catalog. “Call Ya Back” is a rhythmic, horn-laced sing-along that gives a nod to the Big Band era, while “I Get It Now” is a piano-driven ballad in which Sammy Rae sings about the magic of falling in love. The band shifts gears again with “Good Time Tavern,” an upbeat Pop/Rock party song about having some carefree fun at the bar. The album truly sounds like a musical sampler platter of many different flavors.
The catchy lead single, “Thieves,” has been picking up momentum at the Triple A format over the last few months. It has been in steady rotation at WFUV, WYEP, KCMP, WFPK, WMMM, Indie 102.3 and many others. The band will soon head to Europe for some touring before kicking off a headlining Stateside run on April 12 in Philadelphia.
Sammy Rae sums it up, “No matter what sort of music you like, and what you’re looking for in a band, this album has a little of everything we do. There's Something for Everybody.”
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez
Yorumlar