Will Shenton
I've always had a soft spot for the effervescent, glimmering sheen of pop. There's something innately appealing about music that doesn't require you to think too much, opting instead to grab you by the reptilian parts of your brain and drag you onto the dance floor with its energetic hooks. And yet, after more than a handful of listens, it can often feel hollow, the lyrics and structure lacking the substance to have much staying power.
With their sophomore EP, Oakland group The Tambo Rays have delivered five tracks that artfully sidestep those pitfalls. Recharge—an aptly titled record for a number of reasons—builds truly infectious songs atop a rich emotional foundation, chronicling the struggle of founding band members Brian and Sara DaMert after their father passed away in 2015. In so doing, the music embodies both a tribute to their perennially optimistic dad and their healing process itself: "finding passion and opening the heart to love more."
After the fairly ebullient opener, "Yes and No" ("Can you feel the energy / Moving through your body?"), "Always Down" is the first track to hint at this underlying melancholy. The lyrics are an affirmation of support, a promise to always stand by someone's side regardless of how crushed they might be by depression and pain. "And I'll always be there for you / Situations unknown / And I'll always be there for you / To take you where you want to go to," DaMert sings in the build to the chorus, which concludes with the encouraging line, "But we aren't lost now / We found the love."
"Wrong Turn" and "Nothing to Lose" build upon this theme, balancing vulnerability and doubt with statements of defiant optimism ("Sometimes sorrow if swallowed it grows / But I find if I love the sorrow it goes"). And like the rest of the EP, both couch their emotionality in fantastically catchy songwriting.
But it's the strength of the closer, "Get It Right Now," that really ties the room together. If not the strongest song on the album, it's certainly a personal favorite, and something about its tone seems to integrate the best parts of the preceding tracks into an eminently satisfying conclusion. "Pick up the pieces and relax your mind / Pick up the pieces and create your life / We hit the floor naked all alone ... So get it right now," the chorus implores, seeming to shake off any lingering sorrow and embrace the promise of the future, as an irresistible synth line winds its way between the vocals.
Recharge is a rare album, one that's simultaneously easy on the ears and hard on the heart. The Tambo Rays have proven their ability to write captivating earworms that resonate well beyond the superficial, and in the process, it seems, they've found the catharsis they needed to heal and grow. Evocative and wonderfully listenable, I can't recommend it enough.
Be sure to catch The Tambo Rays EP release show with Cave Clove and Star Parks at The Night Light in Oakland this Friday, 7/21.