4 out of 5

Label: P-Vine Records / Ropeadope Records

Produced by: Bobby Previte (?)

While I think the album and song titles (and artwork) are suggesting not this, if we read it as Bobby Previte classifying his players on ‘The Coalition Of The Willing’ – guitarist Charlie Hunter, Skerik on sax, Jamie Saft on keys and bass, Steve Bernstein on trumpet – then the “willingness” here is how the crew is ready to hop to any given genre on a whim: as we’re guided through eight tracks of varying R&B, metal, prog, psychedelic, funk, jazz, and rock, with “whim” actual defined as something incredibly precise and planned.

I mean, I don’t see how this is possible otherwise: the magic of this group is how every moment that verges on cliche will dart and dodge right before it gets to the line, but instead of, like, hanging out at the line, the song will pivot, magically, and we’re in a different genre. And then a moment later, it happens again.

The genres mentioned are no hyperbole, either: there are some heavy moments here to satisfy kids wandering in from a post-rock POV (admittedly how I found Bobby’s work, initially), but then there’s outright dedication to some of the smoothest R&B, or embrace of traditional jazz, both without any kind of winking, or the sense that’s it’s just a stopover between rock riffs: it’s all committed to. This commitment provides the tracks pretty distinct vibes, but the music on the whole is surprisingly upbeat, which is where the project as a concept falls apart for me: the album and song titles and artwork are not about the band’s musical flexibility, and instead seem themed around… 1984? As in the Orwell novel. And while, musically, The Coalition of the Willing is a hoot, to me, it doesn’t really “tell a story:” the group is having a ton of fun nailing their beats while mixing up genre, such that the disc almost has a kind of cover band vibe – it’s ever so slightly superficial.

This is itself still wouldn’t be the biggest knock, since I’m successfully distracted with bobbing my head and tapping my toe for the entire runtime. However, taking the attempted theme of the album name and etc. into account, the tonal mismatch – and lack of an emotional connection; setting aside any meta commentary on lack of emotion being a 1984 theme – is a bit of a distraction from that distraction.