366 Days, 366 Albums: DAY 18

Listening to: Schvitz by Vulfpeck

Genre: Funk

Year: 2022

Another turn of events, but I guess it’s better to say that I’d rather just listen to whatever rather than follow my album list.

Anyways, this marks as my first review while using “headphones” which is yay! Don’t tell me I only listen to in-ears, now. Gear talk aside, this album came about as I was searching around the interwebs for some music reviews and as suggested by @fortunefm, I checked out rateyourmusic.

First thing I checked was Vulfpeck as I never find reviews for Vulfpeck in sites like Pitchfork. So I was quite happy to find that Vulf’s entire discography was right there for pickings. I noticed that Vulf peaked pre-2020s which their legendary Thrill of the Arts, Beautiful Game and even EPs like Fugue State. Post 2020 seemed less well-received, however, with The Joy of Music, The Job of Real Estate getting the lowest score in all of Vulf’s discog.

Obviously, these are all subjective reviews. But I dove in and started reading and I have to say, I did agree with some of the claims about the Joy of Music. But I’ll talk about that on its day (which may or may not come soon).

Today, we talk about Schvitz and where I mostly disagreed with the comments. They saw that this was quite generic and too wacky, but I found it quite the opposite.

I have to admit though, I slept on Schvitz when it came out. It came out of the blue and it was during the time that I kind of fell out of grace with Vulf’s music. And yet, listening to it now made me realize how good this record was.

From Sauna’s groovy instrumentations and catchy motifs to the melancholy Miracle, this record was just filled with joy and energy that is surprisingly consistent compared to even Vulf’s older stuff.

I especially loved tracks like New Guru and Simple Step for being so damn groovy with hella memorable lyrics. I’ve subconsciously memorized New Guru and Simple Step without needing to look at the lyrics which only happens on tracks I get properly invested in.

But obviously, we have to talk about Antwan Stanley’s amazing performance throughout the entire record. My goodness, Antwan has such a perfect voice to pair with Vulf’s music. His voice exudes so much energy in every song.

In Heaven is such a powerful song and is probably my favorite performance of Antwan in this entire record, but Simple Step is very impressive especially with how he pushes his vocals to unimaginably high levels.

I definitely understand why someone would not like this due to its very jumpy and positive nature as a balance of more serious tones does help contrast the highs on a record. But honestly, there are tracks with a more mellow instrumentation that contrast the highs more than enough without needing to be dark or serious in tone at all.

Overall, I love this record and I regret not having listened to this early on when it was released. It’s very happy, energetic and Antwan’s vocals are extra emphasized in this record and I absolutely love the focus on vocals here. Solid record!