Fitz & The Tantrums – Breakin' The Chains Of Love
Fitz & The Tantrums – We Don't Gotta Work It Out
There are very few things in this world that get me crazy excited. A really good sandwich or finding the first Bill Withers album on vinyl – sure I'll be hopping up and down freaking out. Music-wise, there's not much that can get me going more than a new Motown/Stax influenced band. I'm really just a huge sucker for soul (a fact that is well documented). Fitz and the Tantrums masterfully mesh together the influences I hold so dear with a modern, fresh poppiness.
The mark of any good Motown band (original or otherwise) for me is always the rhythym section. If the drummer is holding it down and the bass player is making my loins groove the song is bound to be classic. It's the first thing that hooked me on "Breakin' The Chains of Love" off Pickin' Up The Pieces, and it's the last thing you notice on the last track, "Tighter". Interestingly, the album is composed entirely without guitars which makes the loud, dense tracks even more impressive.
All my overanalyzing doesn't really do justice to the fact that Fitz and the Tantrums are just straight up addictive. Pickin' Up The Pieces is ten tracks of a damn good time and if you can't get down with this, you need to lighten up, Debbie Downer.