Laura Kerry
It is telling that one of five full-fledged members of the New Orleans–based Room Thirteen is credited for playing the bongos and congas. Not your average pop band, the group follows the exotic strain that this lineup suggests. Seeped in lo-fi haze of the girl-group era and loaded with bubbly saxophones, shimmering keys, and sunny harmonies, their new album, Roccopulco, evokes a pool scene in a ‘60s, complete with inflatable flamingos floating, umbrellas in drinks, and people lounging in pastel swimwear.
Roccopulco is the band’s first album as Room Thirteen, after they abandoned the name Danny, borrowed from the band’s driving force, Danny Clifton. Then and now, Clifton plays bass, drum, and guitar, which all create a rhythmic, lively push at the center of the music. The organ and percussion in “Crushed Velour” hop along, sleepy but sharp; the bass pulses along in a low, jaunty groove on “Rat Rod”; and “Candy Cigarettes” pops with brisk accents of retro guitar. But Room Thirteen isn’t all old-timey pool parties. They do hail from New Orleans, after all, and even their breed of tropical pop can’t escape the influence of their city’s jazz roots. In the prolonged sax solo on “Crushed Velour,” the intricate rhythm on “Crazy From The Heat,” and the bossa nova guitar on “Staring At The Sun,” the band reveals that theirs is a dappled sunshine, marked with different hues and the slightest touch of shadow. Check out Roccupulco for a bit of heat in the winter.