Amateur Best
The Gleaners
Reviewed by: Ziggy Merritt
Dancing is one of those things that does not come naturally to me. The best I can manage is a lopsided cabbage patch while most days I find comfort and security with a simple head bob here and there. As I listened through the entirety of Amateur Best’s sophomore release, The Gleaners, I felt more compelled to dance than I usually do on any given day of the week, but more than that I was pleased to discover an album that resists letting those thumping rhythms fall flat on the floor of the discotheque.
A lot of this can be contributed to Joe Flory’s vocals which find themselves somewhere between the maudlin overtones of James Blake and the R&B stylings of How to Dress Well’s Tom Krell. He starts off with the stripped down introduction of “Rely.” The track has the comforting and fuzzy groove of the synthesizer complemented with strings via the Kaiser Quartett. It’s the perfect if deceptive initiation into an album flirting with melancholy and catchy hooks. This is represented at its best in “19” and “Marzipan” the former of which features a layer of piano provided by frequent collaborator, Chilly Gonzales. Leading these tracks is the clarity of Flory’s vocals among the dance-pop quality of the production. Lyrics deal with anything from paralyzing indecision to the mistakes and heartbreaks characteristic of true romance.
Yet the most surprising addition on Gleaners features no lyrics at all. The instrumental track “Part Timer” balances between down tempo house beats and good-natured chillwave vibes. Unlike other instrumental tracks on vocally dense albums “Part Timer” does not share the one-minute interlude title that is all too commonly found. Moving forward from here there is a definite loss of momentum compared to the frenetic pace of everything that came before, yet even these final few tracks are packed with points of brilliance. “Hey Darlin” has a sensual Marvin Gaye post-Motown groove that is muddled near the two and a half minute mark by a faded out pause before proceeding back into its original tempo. “Night Shifter” and “No Sleep” suffer a few similar problems as they start off with the build-up of ambient energy and noise before falling off into hooks not quite as inspired as what came before. Even so, The Gleaners remains the strongest album of Flory’s brief and inspired career as Amateur Best.
Rating: Bad-Ass
