-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Toro Y Moi ALBUM...: What For? GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Pop, Soft Rock YEAR....: 2015 LABEL...: Carpark COUNTRY.: Oakland, CA, USA BORN....: 7 November 1986, Columbia, SC, USA ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 269 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 10 SIZE....: 71.10 MB URL..: https://toroymoi.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anything_in_Return https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toro_y_Moi https://toroymoi.blogspot.com https://www.facebook.com/toroymoi - TRACKLIST 1 What You Want 3:26 2 Buffalo 3:18 3 The Flight 3:59 4 Empty Nesters 3:43 5 Ratcliff 2:41 6 Lilly 4:27 7 Spell It Out 2:54 8 Half Dome 3:15 9 Run Baby Run 2:45 10 Yeah Right 6:11 Total Playtime: 36:39 It's not easy to pin down Toro y Moi and Chaz Bundick. Since he first started releasing music in 2009, one never quite knows what he's going to do next. From super-chilled bedroom pop to slick R&B-influenced jams, his albums have covered a lot of ground. Everything he does is relaxed and smoothed-out at its core, though -- that's the one thing to count on. On 2015's What For?, Bundick takes another unexpected left turn. Casting aside the late-night R&B of 2013's Anything in Return in favor of a guitar-heavy '70s approach, Bundick casts a wide net that includes bits and pieces of power pop, album rock, AM-ready soft rock, some fiery post-acid rock guitar riffing, and even a little disco. He proves to be a master of every stylistic avenue pursued here, turning in the catchiest songs he's written yet in the process. From the sparkling "Buffalo," which sounds like the best Seals & Crofts song never written, to the absolutely lovely "Run Baby Run," every song on the album sounds like it was borrowed from a K-Tel collection. Except perhaps "Yeah Right," which lasts for six slow grooving minutes and is the perfect AOR-style album closer, hair-raising guitar solo and all. What For? has Bundick taking a much more extroverted stance, with songs like the incredibly hooky "Empty Nesters" and shimmery disco confection "Spell It Out" showing more confidence and loose-limbed energy than he often does. Even the songs that have roots in the kind of chillwave he used to do, like the dream-inducing "Lilly," have his vocals higher in the mix and a less murky, more nuanced sound. Bundick must have known he was taking a risk of alienating his fans who looked to him for synth-filled music to soundtrack chilled nights and lazy mornings. Hopefully, they will be won over by the smooth grace with which he delivers his take on '70s pop and rock. No doubt anyone with a predilection for laid-back, good-time guitar rock will find lots of stuff to love here; so will people who like their pop unassuming and hooky as hell. There's no telling what the next Toro y Moi album might sound like; all that is certain is What For? is the best one so far, with Bundick really coming into his own as a songwriter, vocalist, and producer. * South Carolina's Chaz Bundick has always had a certain chameleonic quality, which is probably just as well - nobody wants the word 'chillwave' following them around. The 28-year-old's fourth Toro y Moi album, however, is a more drastic change than usual: out go the gossamer synths and minimalist production, in comes the exuberant power-pop of 'Empty Nesters' and 'Spell It Out', recalling the melodic puritanism of Big Star and the flair of Todd Rundgren. Those are high bars to clear and 'What For?' falters along the way, but its high points are so charming you're willing to forgive the occasional low one. * It seemed for a while at the end last year that South Carolina's synth-pop prodigy Chaz Bundick would be hanging up the Toro Y Moi moniker for a while to make way for the eclectic dance-project Les Sins, what with the release of the debut Michael in November. If that wasn't enough, then creating and heading new label Company Records and collaborating with artists like Chromeo would surely be enough to put the main project at bay for a while. But Bundick is an incredibly industrious young artist, and proof of this was back in January with the arrival "Empty Nesters", which announced not only new material in the form of fourth full-length What For?, but signaled a change in sound from the smooth r'n'b gloss of 2013's Anything In Return to fully-fledged rock. Written and recorded over eight months in his home-studio in Berkley, California, What For? sounds like it could have been snatched from the late '60s, veneered of course by Bundick's characteristic knack for pop melody and production. At the beginning of the year, "Empty Nesters" and consequent drops such as the infectious "Buffalo" showed Toro Y Moi at his most fun, and these kind of tracks make up the first half of What For? Both are playful with their rhythms, and the former's glistening guitar-work will no doubt earn it a spot on many summer playlists. But sandwiched in the middle of the record is "Lilly", a gem that combines Supertramp-esque verses with lustrous, sleepy choruses that evoke blissful emotions that are so silky they're almost intangible. These dreamy melodies are in keeping with the record's nostalgia that harks back to the Summer of Love era in bands such as The Byrds and The Mamas and The Papas, but the album's crisp production makes them all the more vibrant. With the simple lyric hook, "Like me, like you", the emphasis is on the melody. Indeed, although Bundick has commented on his ambiguity as purposeful, the vague lyricism throughout does at times leave us with something to be desired. But regardless of this, the melodies here are so powerful as such that it is not an overstatement to say that with "Lilly" Bundick has created a song to fall in love to. Whilst the track is certainly the highlight, this is not to suggest that the record troughs dramatically thereafter, although 25 minutes or so in tracks like "Half Dome" and "Run Baby Run" do pass by somewhat nondescriptly. They are not bad songs, and if they were summoned individually on shuffle they would surely be enjoyed, but in the grand scheme of the album they are indicative that What For? is slightly less varied than previous releases and exist just add to the gestalt of a 'rock' album. Thankfully, though, What For? ends on a high point. "Yeah Right" drops all at once into one of the most paced and sophisticated compositions Bundick has ever written, blessed with delightful chord progressions and lead arguably by the colourful bass that actually deserves credit for from start to end of the record. The sarcasm loaded in the song's title gains and interesting twist from, again, incredibly enticing melodies. It blends that lo-fi, slacker sound so popular today with huge and anthemic power in a way that many of Bundick's peers seem incapable of doing and as such What For?'s closing number highlights that Bundick, under any guise, is one of the most important songwriters of our generation. * It goes without saying that "pop" sensibilities are fickle and changeable. Trends in music fade as quickly as they ignite, dragging artists from stardom back to relative obscurity in the blink of an eye. However, Chaz Bundick, aka Toro Y Moi, was never going to be relegated to the realm of the one-hit wonder, despite being lumped in with the ephemeral "chillwave" fad. Bundick, quite simply, has a gift for sculpting feel-good jams that are undoubtedly modern, but gesture toward something timeless. His fourth album What For? sees him conjure up his trademark blissful vibes using a previously untouched sonic palette. 'Empty Nesters' is an effortless and breezy taste of guitar-pop that, like much of Toro Y Moi's back catalogue, has "summer anthem" written all over it. Yet gone are the days of synth-induced euphoria--Bundick has traded his electro setup for a more conventional guitar/bass/drums configuration. His knack for infectious melodies is still intact and newly propelled by funk rhythms and sun-kissed riffs. Guitarist Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra brings his distinctive touch to the table on What For? (see 'Half Dome' for total vintage reverb immersion). While the Toro y Moi that made his name during the peak of the chillwave sensation touted R&B; and early '80s influences, Bundick's current incarnation smacks of polished rock n' roll. 'Ratcliff', bold as the assertion is, resonates like 'Dear Prudence': all winsome wording and bittersweet melodic turns. Piano chords and flourishes provide the pensive framework for the track, and Bundick's voice, which has historically come off as youthful and unaffected, takes on a newly nuanced dimension. His last album, 2013's Anything in Return, was flush with saccharine moments--no one would accuse the hit 'Cake' of being particularly dense--still even the weakest line was carried off effortlessly by the strength of Bundick's production. Admittedly, lyrics have never been a selling point for Toro Y Moi, and this holds true across What For?, but like a true pop songsmith, Bundick's message is secondary to his medium for expressing it. This record, much like the three that came before it, is innovative in how it integrates familiar sonic tropes. Bundick isn't bending genres, per se, so much as dredging up the sweetest sounds from decades past and subsuming them under the Toro Y Moi banner. 'Buffalo' and 'Spell It Out' both reveal a preoccupation with disco-tinged strumming. 'The Flight' is a dangerously chill downtempo cut that puts Nielson's '70s-throwback riffing in the foreground while Bundick's low-key vocals are sparsely decked out in wistful harmonies. In its slower moments, What For? rolls in like a cloud of smoke, lethargic and intoxicating; 'Lilly' and 'Yeah Right' drift along in an exalted haze, all distant harmonies and glissandos. Nothing about What For? seems out of character for Bundick. His evolution as an artist has been measured and natural, he isn't stuck in 2010, still lobbying for the laid-back electronics that made his name in the first place. He's far too savvy to stagnate. And as long as he keeps making records like this one--so palatable they might be guilty pleasures were they not so rooted in pristine indiepop--his music will remain relevant. -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---