Pitching for the Tantrums4 Out Of 5 Stars
Possessed with a duo of knock out lead vocalists, Fitz and The Tantrums are the latest band to wear there 80's retro heart on their collective sleeves. But where amny of these retor bands are obsessed with laptops and old Roland synths, Fitz and Company push in a more soul-oriented direction. It moves them a notch above their contemporaries, thanks to bandleader Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick and soul belter Noelle Scaggs, When the two of them start mixing it up as they do on "Break The Walls" and the neo-soul of "6AM," "More Then Just a Dream" sounds like few other bands out there.
There's also, as earlier described, a few 80's ringers, and they both happen to be the singles. "Out Of My League" and "Spark" mark their wannabe new waver turf with a big pile of hooks, but they're pedestrian to when the band gets to cooking. They have another secret weapon in multi-instrumentalist James King, who wields a wicked sax on a few of the songs ("6AM," and "The Walker" and is, in my opinion, underutilized here.
From what I understand, Fitz and The Tantrums also have a killer live show, and if they'd up more of the soulful content in their song performances on record, they'd have a killer CD. Still, the songcraft here is first rate, and even the name of the band is a throwback. "More Than Just A Dream" snaps and crackles and comes in on the short end of derivative...lose the too common production and they will be dynamite.
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