"what would you do with all that time"
Six piece New Jersey based Quality Living on the track Quiet (Rest) from their sophomore album, "Something Softly Caught Me", manage to stuff so many musical angles into the fray that it is a wonder that Darrel Norrell's nimble and down to earth vocal performance has room to breathe but it does. This has to do with all 6 talented musicians not stepping on each other toes or notes and they do not. The track is full of subtle shades of sounds, of perfectly placed guitar lines, of bass notes that leave empty holes to peak out of. The horn orchestrations peer in an out of those holes as do evocative backing vox while the drum patterns hold everything down. The lyrics, pointed and sharply spun in a pushed defiance or held up by angelic voices work and are smart. The musical break highlighted by a horn solo, deep keys and wistful guitar rhythms is sublime. The last third gets trippy and funky and made me smile. It is interesting, while there is a light aspect to this song, there is a lot of punk heart underneath Quality Living's aesthetic, underneath the divergent sense of composition and acerbic writing, kind of like if the Pixies were into chamber pop.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
On March 13, New Jersey’s Quality Living released its sophomore record Something Softly Caught Me via Sniffling Indie Kids. Spanning 11 tracks of yacht rock flirtation cut with jazzy nerdities and a 90s-indie looseness, Quality Living’s colorful groove is a friendly look for 2020’s beach jam playlists, but simmering just beneath that sunny disposition is a resoundingly introspective bout with anxiety, self-control, and redemption.
Something Softly Caught Me arrives at a crossroads in Quality Living’s story, throughout which they’ve released a self-titled full-length (2016) and a trickle of singles. Those tracks, particularly “Oh No” and “Alcohol Store,” helped endear them to audiences seeking breezy, winsome summer tunes, in a time marked by fluidity in their lineup. Eventually, in late summer of 2018 and the year that followed--while increasingly tangled in career changes, marriages, new homes--the band gathered their scraped-together hours and poured all they had into making what could have just as easily been a swan song as a hit of their stride.
The result bears as much polish as it has risk. If the six-piece’s disparate influences couldn’t move in unison on Something Softly Caught Me, they certainly flare up in dualities. Darrel Norrell’s vocal performances feel heart-on-sleeve but toy lyrically with nonsense; the band’s airy instrumentals grow thick and tangled. A squawking saxophone holds down a good chunk of the album’s melodic backbone of an album that occasionally touches emo-level weight.
Something Softly Caught Me arrives at a crossroads in Quality Living’s story, throughout which they’ve released a self-titled full-length (2016) and a trickle of singles. Those tracks, particularly “Oh No” and “Alcohol Store,” helped endear them to audiences seeking breezy, winsome summer tunes, in a time marked by fluidity in their lineup. Eventually, in late summer of 2018 and the year that followed--while increasingly tangled in career changes, marriages, new homes--the band gathered their scraped-together hours and poured all they had into making what could have just as easily been a swan song as a hit of their stride.
The result bears as much polish as it has risk. If the six-piece’s disparate influences couldn’t move in unison on Something Softly Caught Me, they certainly flare up in dualities. Darrel Norrell’s vocal performances feel heart-on-sleeve but toy lyrically with nonsense; the band’s airy instrumentals grow thick and tangled. A squawking saxophone holds down a good chunk of the album’s melodic backbone of an album that occasionally touches emo-level weight.
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