Work Drugs - Over The Edge
Philly sedative wave/smooth-fi outfit Work Drugs dropped a seven-track appetizer of their forthcoming full-length album, slated for release later this year. It’s called Over The Edge.
Work Drugs
Made up of Thomas Crystal (guitar, vocals) and Benjamin Louisiana (keyboards, vocals), the live line-up includes Mr. Kansas City (bass, vocals), and Jonas O (drums).
According to the band, “Work Drugs makes music specifically for dancing, boating, yachting, sexting, and living. Please enjoy, please.”
The EP begins with “Relative Contentment,” traveling on smooth tones atop a pulsing kick drum. When the rhythm takes form, the tune assumes a velvety flow composed of dream-pop and lush yacht-rock-lite flavors, with hints of cool jazz sensuality running through it. I love the softwave texture of this track, like cashmere sliding over polished glass. A suave sax infuses the tune with creamy, erotic timbres.
“Real love / Will I find it I swear / Needing real love / I’ll find it I swear / I need a real love.”
Instrumental versions of “Relative Contentment” and “Winter Keys” ooze impeccably graceful soundscapes, featuring the marvelous sax, guitars, and keyboards.
Subjectively, the best tracks include “Winter Keys,” streaming on a bouncing, percolating melody burnished by buttery colors. Vaguely reminiscent of Sade’s sophisti-pop, the tune glitters and sparkles with glowing energy, low-slung and foaming with tantalizing wisps.
The title track opens on twinkling hues flowing into a voluptuous melody chock-full of rolling jazz-flecked textures and quixotic elegance. Dulcet falsetto tones imbue the lyrics with nuanced tenderness. The sax solo delivers scrumptiously inviting accentuations.
“Red Tide” floats and ripples on silken sax tones, as the pulsating rhythm adds an astonishingly sumptuous rhythm. Strata of lustrous sounds merge to form a buffed harmonic stream, subtle and alluring.
Instrumental versions of “Relative Contentment” and “Winter Keys” ooze impeccably graceful soundscapes, featuring the marvelous sax, guitars, and keyboards.
Over The Edge is superb, sleek and easy, exuding an almost effortless quality of charm and irresistible lush coloration. Work Drugs has it going on!
