I picked up Love The Future, the debut full-length release from D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey, better known as the duo Chester French. It should be noted that I have a soft spot for Chester French. How could I not? I look at them and think, 'they look like my somewhat nerdy, younger brothers who happen to make music, are smart and damn good at marketing.' Well, that is if I had younger brothers! At any rate you just wanna hug 'em and give 'em ice cream. But, I digress.Love The Future lets the world in on what fans already knew, Chester French doesn't really fit into a predefined category. The Tejano? styling's of their "Introduction" kicks things off. If you didn't already know, then you were pretty much clued in at that point that you were in for some sort of musical diversity. "C'mon (On My Own)" is up next and it's a solid pop rock bit. It's what comes after that, that's worth the price of the album on it's own. "Bebe Buell," is hands down my favorite song on the album. This addictive number mixes dirty guitar work some serious clap along keyboard driven pop music. If I weren't already hooked on Chester French, this song would have hooked me.
"Fingers," another favorite of mine, is like a cross between The Beatles and Tony Orlando. What? Am I the only one who thinks that? Well, this wouldn't be the first time that I've made questionable comparisons. Something about the song reminds me of 70's TV variety shows.
They've managed to create imagery in my head that can only be found in those old variety shows. I can just see them now, fully costumed, dancing around a sound stage in some delightfully cheesy choreographed musical skit that has nothing to do with the song. One would reckon I'm going to say that's a bad thing but, I'm not! I have very fond memories of watching all 750 different music/comedy variety shows that aired in the 70's during my formative years. Hold up, that makes me sound really old! At any rate, it's a bang up orchestrated pop song.Where the brilliant "String Interlude" is a brief but dramatic string filled break, the equally brilliant "Country Interlude" is anything but country with it's various effects and instrumentation's. Musically, it's rather creepy sounding going from mad guitar to what sounds like a xylophone (vibraphone?) that beckons you to soft shoe, back to the mad buzzing guitar. Yeah, there's a trip that's just waiting to happen with this song and a good pair of headphones.
"Beneath The Veil" has a rockabilly vibe. At the same time, it has a bit of a retro "these boots are made for walking" dance beat to it. I'm not sure I've ever heard a tap dance solo in a song that didn't involve a Broadway show and $150 tickets. But there's one in this song. This is where that somewhat nerdy part comes in. People go to shows and yell out guitar/bass/drum solo but NOBODY ever yells out t
ap dance solo! Are D.A. and Max trying to start a trend? If anyone can inspire people to go to a show and start yelling out for someone to bust a mad tap dance solo, it's Chester French. I do like the song, by the way. "Beneath The Veil" is followed by two other goodies, "Neal," with it's sax and piano bits and "Not Over You." Everyone knows the catchy "The Jimmy Choos" and "She Loves Everybody." They're both here and just as catchy as ever.
Love The Future is a enjoyable piece of work. It embraces many styles, mixes them all together and does so without sounding like a train wreck.
Track Listing
- Introduction
- C'mon (On My Own)
- Bebe Buell
- String Interlude
- The Jimmy Choos
- Time To Unwind
- Fingers
- Country Interlude
- Beneath The Veil
- Neal
- Not Over You
- She Loves Everybody
- Sleep
www.myspace.com/chesterfrench
