Superfood – Bambino

Bambino is a rollicking effort from a promising band

Album Review by Ross Devlin | 13 Sep 2017
Album title: Bambino
Artist: Superfood
Label: Dirty Hit
Release date: 8 Sep

Superfood’s second album Bambino is as varied as a carefully curated Spotify playlist. It’s self-conscious and arty, but also filled with groove and pomp. Their songs combine elements that often sound sophomoric and annoying in isolation – teenager-sex whoops and moans, big, balls-out guitar solos, ska horns and belligerent noise – but are brought together in wonderful, banter-ific fashion with a wink and a dash of melody.

Take the album opener Where’s The Bass Amp, with its stupidly joyful hook ('I said-a booom-chick-a-boom') like something one would repeat aloud on the playground while stomping about in an oversized raincoat. This kid 'grew up', experimented with substances, formed a group of friends around said substances, and then eventually began to question their place in it all (while strung out on substances).

Bambino is both a Big Night Out in a Little Shite Town and an invite-only affair on a London rooftop. Like many new bands full of intelligence, technology, and short attention spans, Bambino contains a staggering array of instruments and sounds. The studio mix is excellent, and sample-heavy interludes provide a welcome break from what at times seems like a label compilation. One unifying thread, however, is the playground-fidelity sampling and the prominent, plucky bass, which gives the album a Parliament-ish, heavy funk overtone.

Despite their much-touted homage to dub and ska, Superfood borrow the best elements from decades of British pop-rock: nonsense lyrical psychedelia on Need a Little Spider; the angular, pentatonic croon on Raindance; the radio filter call-and-response on lead single Unstoppable.

There’s some undeniably cheeky moments throughout the album, a party-approved crossover appeal, that will surely lead to packed festival tents in the future. Superfood will ultimately succeed at giving hapless uni students their dance legs. Double Dutch is infinitely more entertaining than the lukewarm Witness, and their Radiohead impression on Shadow is gormless. Bambino is a rollicking effort from a promising band.

Listen to: Unstoppable, Raindance, Where's The Bass Amp?

http://superfoodjunk.com/