photo: Seth Thompson/Epiglotic Photographic
Chicago based funky soul band The Right Now are back with a brand new record. Starlight is the long-awaited follow-up for their Gets Over You album that came out in 2012. They have retained their old school sound, a blend of Philly soul, lazy pop and tasteful funk tunes. It's smooth and blatantly sexy sometimes. Singer Stefanie Berecz urges her partner to "take me where I wanna be" in Up All Night. The late night ballad Love (Lets Me Know) carefully sidesteps all the pitfalls and clichés, by inserting carefully placed brass, guitar licks and vocal ad libs. Brendan O’Connell, the band's resident composer, is the opposite of a one-trick pony, writing songs that require several tags to describe their genre, but always with a back beat that people can dance to.
The Right Now have always respected their musical predecessors. The bass line that Greg Nergaard came up with for If It Was You takes the listener straight back to the Seventies, when funk and soul had a baby and named it disco. The influence of Bettye Lavette comes to fore in the putdown song Too Late, in which a guy is derided for missing his change to make a move.
They are a band that believes in the American Dream, not the distorted version polluted by alternative facts. They are not afraid to make a stand and go political in Everything Is Broken, pointing fingers at rampant consumerism and cheap labor. The Right Now have been in the game since 2007, when they were still known as Eli Jones. and with a decade of experience under they belts, they push all the right buttons, with all pistons gleaming and working effortlessly.
The Right Now:
Stefanie Berecz: vocals
Brendan O’Connell: keyboards, guitar
Chris Corsale: guitar
Greg Nergaard: bass
Lucas Gillan: drums
Caleb Mitchell: trumpet
Jim Schram: tenor sax
Starlight is a self-released album. Preorder (vinyl, CD, digital) from their website. The translucent blue 150g vinyl LP has 8 tracks (That's Enough and Everything Is Broken are not included) and comes a download card for all 10.
Tracks:- Love You Better
- Postcard
- Up All Night
- Love (Lets Me Know)
- If It Was You
- Too Late
- Starlight
- That's Enough
- Everything Is Broken
- Hooked
- 03/25 Founder's Brewery, Grand Rapids, MI
- 03/26 Tiffin University @ Marion Center, Tiffin, OH
- 03/27 Bullfrog Brewery, Williamsport, PA
- 03/28 Spirit, Pittsburgh, PA
- 03/29 Plaid Room Records, Loveland, OH
- 03/30 MOTR, Cincinnati, OH
- 03/31 The Jazz Kitchen, Indianapolis, IN
- 04/01 Acme Feed & Seed, Nashville, TN
- 04/14 The Hideout, Chicago, IL
- 04/21 Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI
HCTF review of Gets Over You.
