It's rare when an established band with a recognizable sound makes a big change. But that's what Lambchop has done with it's new recording For Love Often Turns Us Still, or FLOTUS.
Lead singer and songwriter Kurt Wagner has electronically treated most of his vocals and made room for drum loops and other audio treatments on songs inspired by the sounds he heard coming from his neighbors and recent records from Kendrick Lamarr, Kanye West and Frank Ocean.
The first song starts off sounding like it could be the somber, country-tinged Lambchop that fans have come to know, but then Wagner's voice comes in. That's when it became clear he was going somewhere else with FLOTUS.
The lyrically dense album is influenced by hip-hop. Wagner said he was trying to make a record his pop-fan wife would listen to.
The song "Relatives #2" is a bona fide dance tune once it gets rolling. Wagner electronically manipulates his voice to sound more like an instrument. There there are stutters and starts and stops and popped p's and overlapping parts.
"NIV" is catchy with some brilliant little keyboard parts and the bass really keeps things moving. Here's the official video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQMNeFnuyMU
You can hear songs from FLOTUS on our HD2 channel and on our 24/7 music stream.