When Nashville’s groove addiction passed through town last week to play the Midpoint Music Fest [show review here], their latest CD, Temporal Bliss found its way into my pocket, and came home with me. What struck me about them live was their solid dance foundation, with a number of musical styles rolling across the top. When I left MPMF that night, I popped the CD into my player and began my drive home…
The disc opens strong with the radio friendly “Big Mistake”, and from there, the band builds upon that strength on everything that follows. The songs are straightforward, easy to listen to and well-crafted. Their music is body music; it gets you up and moving. The lyrics are as traditional as it gets – good relationships, bad relationships, people’s connection with other people. It’s the kind of thing that hits the airwaves and stays there for eons. The hip cynic, looking for a weak link in the chain, will have to work hard to find it on this disc.
These guys make no bones about where they learned their craft. In “Slide My Way” (the CD has a booklet, complete with lyrics – no cheap indie release here), keyboardist/songwriter J.J. Benson tells us that he “learned by listening to the best musicians in the land when they still ruled the radio”. The influences are there, but just when you think you know who they sound like, they throw a change-up at you. More than one person I’ve played this CD has said, “They sound a little like…”, and then stopped with, “Well, maybe not”. There are bits and pieces of so many different artists, yet the band still comes out with a distinctive sound. The key is in the delivery of the vocals: one song it’s blue-eyed soul (singer Meven’s voice is capable of going in several directions with apparent ease), the next it’s Maroon 5, and I swear I heard hints of 10cc in the mix too. Two very important lessons that groove addiction has learned:
Michael Jackson taught them when not to play, and when not to sing
Steely Dan taught them that you can be creative and commercial without compromise
I heard these qualities in their songs live before I pulled the CD out of the case. In the CD’s tray, the interior art is a collage of album covers and old 45s. It’s all there – Michael Jackson, Steely Dan, Beatles, ELO, Diana Ross, Def Leppard, Squeeze, Stevie Wonder, et al.
From the somewhat edgy “Identity” to the fairly middle-of-the-road soul “29 Days”, the songs of Temporal Bliss have one indisputable quality:
They stay in your head.
Really.
Oh, there’s also a hidden track. It’s one of those “we did it for ourselves” kind of tracks. You’ll just have to find that one out for yourself.
If Nashville is truly the town where only the strong survive, groove addiction knows their Darwin.
Review: Groove Addiction - "Temporal Bliss"
