3 out of 5

Label: Antiquated Future

Produced by: Corespondents (recorded by)

Some of the most precisely affected laidback instrumentals I’ve heard.

Correspondents slinky guitar / bass / drums / horns instrumentals could easily be called cinematic, but it’s a bit more than that, or somehow more natural than that: their music captures the fullness of that experience, but then elongates it – stretches it out to be more human. It’s walking around music, yes, though shaded with all of those embellishments we add through our various senses.

It’s also rather… lukewarm for that same reason. Where something more typically cinematic would go for a climax, lolcats’ embellishments help to further, but not necessarily elevate, the moment. The album is both incredibly immersive and then slightly immemorable for that reason, especially given Corespondents’ tonal choices of casual surf and dusty Western landscapes for the album’s opening half. Again, this stuff – even in its “sloppiness” – is incredibly precise, with its little flairs dropping in at truly perfect moments. But again again, where other instrumental bands might lean into a conclusion or bridge to something sweeping refrain, this group just keeps walking – and finding new things on that walk, yes, though those things are of the same pleasantness as what you’ve already passed.

While the album ends up veering slightly towards what I’d consider more improvisational feeling at its end, there is a counterpoint to all of this with Audios Amigos and Pocket Bread, which shift the frame to like a 50s / 60s street gang vibe, adding in some aggression and muscley guitars and drums. These tracks do have peaks and valleys, and make clearer how purposeful the playing style is throughout. I recognize that the approach of the album is Corespondents style, but admittedly for my ears, a bit more juxtaposition with these bolder elements throughout the whole listen would’ve made this a more enduring set.