{"id":13677,"date":"2017-12-04T05:30:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=13677"},"modified":"2017-11-24T07:55:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T12:55:34","slug":"album-review-the-fritz-natural-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/album-review-the-fritz-natural-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Fritz — Natural Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The phase-shifted synthesizer pads that introduce \u201cStuck in Between,\u201d the opening track on The Fritz<\/strong>‘s new album Natural Mind<\/em>, evokes thoughts of 1970s r&b outfit like the Brothers Johnson. But as soon as that thought forms, a repeating guitar figure enters, sounding like a more accessible version of the 1980s lineup of progressive rock giants King Crimson. And the thundering bass note that leads the rest of the band into the song only reinforces that Crimson connection.<\/p>\n

Even though things take a decidedly accessible and funk-focused path from there, the progressive, soul and r&b references are useful touchstones for the Fritz’s brand of original music. There’s a skillful balance of taut musical interplay, top-flight musicianship, groove and thoughtful lyrics on Natural Mind<\/em>. And everything’s brought together in the form of memorable tunes. Hooks and memorable vocal phrases abound on the disc’s 12 group-composed songs.<\/p>\n

The collective approach to songwriting is carried through in arrangement; while a close listen reveals intriguing musicality form each of the band’s five musicians, the entire package is delivered as a seamless whole, one that satisfies even without that close listen. Leader Jamar Woods<\/strong>‘ two keyboard solos (with two very different sound textures) are irresistible, as is the soaring lead guitar solo that immoderately follows, courtesy of Jamie Hendrickson<\/strong>. A third keyboard solo \u2013 organ and piano \u2013 that ends the song is merely icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

Jake O’Connor<\/strong>‘s sultry and assured bass guitar opens \u201cFact From Fiction,\u201d leading into a song that initially feels like a 21st century update of the Isley Brothers’ classic \u201cThat Lady.\u201d Woods has a well-honed sense of where, when and how to work keyboard textures into a song, and he does so deftly throughout Natural Mind<\/em>. \u201cFact From Fiction\u201d has enough charms for two songs, and in fact the vocal section doesn’t enter for some time; the track runs over 8 minutes, but not a second is wasted.<\/p>\n

The rest of the album follows on, maintaining similar standard in both quality and variety. Woods’ keys and vocals are clearly the focus, but everyone in the group (including drummer Michael Tillis<\/strong> and percussionist Mikey \u201cSpice\u201d Evans<\/strong>) takes his turn at showcasing within the band context. With its subtle yet effective clavinet stabs, \u201cEasier\u201d feels a bit like Marvin Gaye or Steve Wonder circa 1973.<\/p>\n

Four brief interludes break up the album. One owes more to Brian Eno’s \u201cpop trilogy\u201d of 1970s albums (with perhaps even a bit of krautrock influence) than any progressive or soul antecedents; its inclusion only increases the stylistic breadth of the album. The interludes also imbue Natural Mind<\/em> with a sweeping, cinematic quality that \u2013 despite their undeniable charms \u2013 dance floor funksters like \u201cGet it Together\u201d don’t have. The hypnotic interlude \u201cFall Backwards\u201d features some entrancing layered wordless vocals; like the other interludes, it’s over well short of the two-minute mark. But it could have easily gone on longer without wearing out its welcome. And \u201cEverybody Knows\u201d displays Woods’ facility with gospel forms.<\/p>\n

With its insistent percussion foundation and memorable bass line, \u201cYou\u201d is a mind movie in the tradition of Isaac Hayes’ \u201cTheme from Shaft\u201d and Curtis Mayfield’s \u201cSuperfly.\u201dYet despite all of Natural Mind<\/em>‘s inescapable sonic connection to music of the past, the album sounds fresh and modern. With mere weeks left in 2017, it’s a strong contender for the year’s best album from an Asheville-based act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The phase-shifted synthesizer pads that introduce \u201cStuck in Between,\u201d the opening track on The Fritz‘s new album Natural Mind, evokes thoughts of 1970s r&b outfit like the Brothers Johnson. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,49,60,65,69],"tags":[237,3269,3268],"class_list":["post-13677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funk","category-new-release","category-rb","category-review","category-soul","tag-asheville","tag-jamar-woods","tag-the-fritz","cat-31-id","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13679,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13677\/revisions\/13679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}