Big Hearts, Bigger Grooves: Lolla Part II

Now that I've had a couple months to scurry around like a nut-hungry squirrel, buying property and touring foreign nations, it's time to catch my breath and check in again with a couple more bands discovered during the annual Lolla pilgrimage.  We didn't get to catch either band full on, but snapped up the tail end of their sets coming to or from other stages. What we caught was enough to warrant further inspection, though, and after spending more time with them the last few months I'm glad I did.

First up's the twosome from LA, Papa, whose late-year debut Tender Madness is a swing for the fences affair that connects almost without fail.  Chock full of earnest little gems, lead singer Darren Weiss croons tunes that dance between lovesick tenderness and belt it to the rafters passion.  It's a tightly assembled effort -- there are loads of blissful melodies to lose yourself in, and Weiss' honey-laden voice matches nicely with fellow bandmate Daniel Presant as they harmonize on a handful of tracks. "Put Me To Work,"  "Young Rut," and "If You're My Girl, Then I'm Your Man" are runaway train anthems, while "Got To Move," "Forgotten Days," and "I Am The Lion King" -- the only carryover from their debut EP, A Good Woman is Hard to Find -- capture a languid, confident groove, surfing atop sumptuous bass lines and sparkling, bright guitar parts.  The rest is just flat out prettiness -- "If The Moon Rises" and the title track chief among them -- but nothing encapsulates things better than the closing track from the aforementioned EP, "A Song for Mike Gigliotti."  This mini-epic ebbs and flows from hushed ballad to frothy, frantic embrace over its brilliant six minutes.  It, like the remainder of the band's efforts to date, shimmers with inviting warmth.


Next is Jungle, a somewhat mysterious collective of lads and lasses from London, who roll in with a breezy self-titled debut that smacks of all the glitz and glamor of a 70s coke party.  Similar to last year's offering from Daft Punk, this one conjures up the bygone era of polyester pants and butterfly collars, but without the arch or weird flourishes that stymied that album.  There's no documentary style Moroder narration, no Broadway style numbers here -- just smooth, soulful disco that whips you into motion for the album's forty minute duration.  It's not a simple dance party, though, but an album that rewards repeat listening to unearth its hidden layers.  There's the police sirens and talking voices backing the opening "The Heat," which brings to mind a street scene in 1970s New York with the steam coming out of the sewers and the breeze ruffling your fur collared coat under the subway tracks. There's the wind chimes chirping in the back of "Platoon" and the creaking door and floorboards of "Drops;" the finger snaps, record pops, and rolling waves of "Lucky I Got What I Want."  The vocals set the tone, shifting from a Justin Vernon/Marvin Gaye croon ("Lemonade Lake," "Accelerate") to an exuberant Bee Gees style falsetto ("Julia," "Crumbler"), sometimes in the same song.  It's a rich, luscious affair, and none better than lead single "Busy Earnin'," which packs a lot of magic into its scant three minutes. Check it out here: