After Dallon Weekes and Ryan Seaman of I Do not Know How However They Discovered Me (iDKHOW) launched their debut EP 1981 Prolonged Play again in 2018, we had fairly a powerful concept about what to anticipate for his or her debut album Razzmatazz. We’re happy to see that we have not been totally disillusioned, and much more happy to see how their sound has elevated into this multi-layered new wave juggernaut that by no means strays an excessive amount of into the territory of their respective former bands: Panic! At The Disco and Falling In Reverse.
Actually, iDKHOW feels extra like a tribute to mid-2000s indie artists like The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and even Muse, whereas concurrently echoing the 70s and 80s sentiments of David Bowie and Queen.
Go away Me Alone makes for a somewhat good album opener; 80s synths mix seamlessly into an upbeat disco rhythm and it is the right introduction to Dallon Weekes’ funky vocals that will probably be constantly stuffed with surprises because the album progresses.
The dramatic Mad IQs maintains that dynamic power earlier than they pull-out a splendid tongue-in-cheek quantity entitled No person Likes The Opening Band. We’re feeling a really Robbie Williams vibe on the vocals of this piano-led, baroque-pop quantity and lyrically we’re joyful to see a band which might be all about having enjoyable.
From The Gallows is a equally schmaltzy lounge quantity, undercut by varied surprises; it is sometimes harking back to Queen, with an inexplicable romantic lament from a Stephen Hawking-esque voice mid-track, and a saxophone solo besides. There’s loads happening right here, however who’re we to inform iDKHOW to strip it again a bit?
After a hovering psychedelic quantity that’s Clusterhug – a typically cloyingly candy love music – an actual album spotlight comes with the synth-laden Sugar Tablets. It is a campy new wave anthem that oozes intercourse attraction and actually screams what iDKHOW are all about.
iDKHOW take it down a notch for the rest of the album; there’s slightly vibe of The Remedy (Want period) on Kiss Goodnight, uplifting twinkly synths on Lights Go Down, and a lullaby high quality to Want You Right here.
Nonetheless, after the brief and melancholic Door, Razzmatazz ends on a strong word with the title monitor, Razzmatazz. It is a bit of a rock quantity with the aftertaste of every little thing else we have heard, and it is in all probability the music that echoes Panic! At The Disco probably the most – not that we had been searching for that.
iDKHOW are unapologetically flamboyant all through this hook-laden and completely over-the-top launch. Pleasantly jazz-tinged and typically eerily vaudevillian, it was at all times going to be exhausting to pigeonhole a band like this. However maybe for now we need not.
