!!! are by definition FUN. Once you move past the confusion of how you pronounce their band name (it’s “Chk Chk Chk”), you realize that it just adds an extra emphasis on maximum excitement. Their musical goal in life is to get you pumped, get your body moving, and maybe even get you dancing. And this they have achieved, with every one of their previous records; they’ve been shaking booties since 2001, and they don’t plan on stopping now.
Their fifth full-length, Thr!!!er, definitely has a dance rock element similar to the band’s previous releases, but there seems to be a unexpected pop music emphasis to this album. The opening track, “Even When the Water is Cold,” is an odd choice for a start. It sounds off-kilter for !!!, who always struck me as a band who didn’t really care what you think (hell, they don’t care if you can’t figure out their band name) — but now seem to be heading into more mainstream territory. This is a new realm for the band: making normal pop songs, with no synthy dance tangents, or spaced out surreal moments of zen.
The unfortunate burden that Portishead has to bear with being an innovator is the multitude of bands that have subsequently been trying to imitate their sound. In keeping with the Portishead reference, there is something about Sarah Ann Kelleher’s (who moniker is Misfit Mod) debut album Islands & Islands that just sounds dated, like she’s trying to revive a scene that everyone has already moved on from. It just gives me the feeling that I’m back in the UK in 1998, and she’s playing at a bar.
Anything in Return is the record that Toro Y Moi is going to really break through with. Not because it is necessarily his best, but because the media machine has been buzzing in overtime to get him into the upper stratosphere of ultimate hipness. This process will be helped by the fact that Toro Y Moi’s music has become accessible to more than a select group of Pitchfork readers as his career has progressed. He’s added more genres (funk, dance, electro-pop, R&B) to his repertoire — and while this can be a liability in some cases, TyM has managed to make it on the whole a strength. It’s his time, and he’s ready for it.
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