Hi, everyone. Tooththony Picktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. It's time for a review of this new Louis Cole, Metropole Orkest, and Jules Buckley album, nothing.

Yes, here we have the latest full-length LP from drummer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, really, Mr. Louis Cole, who is a virtuoso talent, a busy bee, with a lot of different projects and albums under his belt at this point.

This new one here maybe being his most ambitious yet. Because, while Cole's output over the years that I have been aware of him may be a little hit or miss at times, because the production on that last Nowhere album was a bit rough around the edges, plus the tracklist on his recent Quality over Opinion album was a bit bloated, too.

However, it is always clear that Cole is bringing a ton of talent to the table with anything that he does, and he usually throws a lot of caution to the wind in his various music projects as well, which is always exciting, especially on this new album here, where Cole is taking his particular brand of jazz fusion combined with funktronica to a new level with arranger and conductor Jules Buckley, as well as what is said to be the world's leading pop and jazz orchestra, the Metropole Orkest.

Now, with that being said, jazz and orchestral arrangements or classical adjacent music of any kind have had a pretty long and sometimes controversial history together because the regimented and methodically planned nature of orchestrations doesn't always jive with the wild, free, flowing, and improvisational energy of jazz. There are plenty of cases across popular music history where bringing these things together has worked, but there are also plenty more where it has not.

I will say in the context of all of that, nothing here makes for a pretty interesting case because the sound and presence that Metropole is bringing to the table on these tracks is so huge, so intense, so massive. And yet the performances from Metropole, specifically throughout these tracks, they're very dynamic, they're very nimble, they are really moving with the intensity and the pace of the underlying jazz fusion and funk instrumentation that really is the backbone of this record a lot of the time.

Louis Cole is not pulling any punches, like the just incredible grooves and drumming that he is known for. He is just bringing all that and more on this record. For the most part, when it comes to Cole and Metropole and Jules Buckley, there is just insane creative chemistry going on between between these three. The orchestrations across this record, for the most part, are just enhancing the kinds of quirky, jazz-adjacent songwriting shenanigans that Cole is known for.

To kick things off with the first full song on the record, we have "Things Will Fall Apart", a track whose tune I think would really pop off in any context. It's that sweet, it's that hooky, it's that good. There's also big Stevie Wonder vibes coming off the songwriting on this track, too. But I think this song hits even harder than it would normally with these persistent, rhythmic, honking, bassy horn sections and bright string hits, too. All of which make for a great complement to Cole's very youthful and boyish lead vocals and punchy drumming as well.

Following this, the ante is upped on the song "Life", which has these Psycho soundtrack dissonant string hits that thrust against these very peppy jazz funk grooves, some dazzling flanged-out chords as well. The entire track, the sensation of it, the pacing of it. It feels like I am traveling through this just surreal psychedelic space race.

But from here, I think the record's very strong start begins to diminish a bit as the track "It All Passes" is a pretty dense and lengthy string movement at three minutes and change. The piece for sure is pretty and entertaining while it's on, but it's not exactly bringing the intensity or immersion of the two previous tracks so far.

Then "Cruisin' for P", while I do like the general vibe this track is headed in, this very loose vocal jazz with some nice swing rhythms and swanky horn sections, some soaring strings, too. Again, cool intentions like that Cole and Company are trying to pull this thing off, but I just don't think the vocals brought to the table fit this jazz style all that well. That presence gap between the vocals and the drums and the orchestrations only increases as we dig deeper into the record on songs like "Pill in the Sea", as well as "Weird Moments", which also features these awkward whisper raps.

The record also features a very quirky, odd, but somewhat enjoyable midpoint, with the title track being another entirely orchestral piece on the record that's actually a lot more emotionally evocative. It sounds very storybook, very fantastical, very almost old Hollywood in a way.

Then there's these very shortcuts titled "Who Cares 1" and "Who Cares 2". Both of these tracks feature vocals just singing "Who cares?" over a couple of different instrumentals, the second of which actually features way more orchestral hits than the first and is a lot more gratifying, fast-paced, exciting. I don't know. For tracks that feature these lyrics, it seems like a of effort's going into them, but maybe that's the point.

There's also the very short "Wizard Funk", which I'm maybe not seeing quite as much the point in, especially since we are taking so much time to get back to the meatier cuts on the record.

But yeah, I do generally think the ending on this record is pretty strong with tracks like "These Dreams Are Killing Me", which is a complete and utter anthem. I mean, really the catchiest song on the entire record, and this is maybe the best example of the meld creatively between Metropole and Jules Buckley and Cole. I think it's just the best overlap between the three. Just stellar balance of vocals and songwriting and orchestration and the types of groups and keys that Cole is known for.

Then from here, we have some orchestral versions of songs that dig a bit deeper back into the Cole catalog. And honestly, these new renditions are sick as hell. I feel like hearing them in this more orchestral context actually adds quite a bit to them. And yeah, these are songs that Cole has been working with for a long time, and I'm sure for fans, hearing them in this light can be pretty exciting. And they're presented in a way where they fit very snuggly in the context of the rest of the record, so it works.

But then after this, we have the 11 minute and 11 second "Doesn't Matter", which is another mostly orchestral piece with some vocal inclusions here and there. And while it does reach a very epic finish, I do think the pacing of it is tedious at points. Maybe it didn't quite need to be this length per se.

And "You Belonged" suffices as a very pretty, tender, gentle, epilogue type moment on the record that finishes things off nicely.

But yeah, overall, while I do think this record did have its shortcomings and its handful of tracks that made maybe the flow feel a bit weird or lopsided - certainly a few cuts as well where the vocals, I think, could have been better, stronger, more interesting because they were really being overshadowed by everything else going on. Still, what we're getting here in terms of this combination of electronics and jazz and funk and orchestra music, it's pretty exciting, bold, and I would say unique. With it pushing the boundaries in the way that it does, there are some moments and pockets where it's experimenting a bit, and those experiments maybe don't pan out fully.

I feel like to a degree, that's just the natural order of playing with fire a bit. Yeah, while there are some spots on this record that most definitely could have been improved, for the most part this was really a fun, intense, bold, colorful, and vibrant album experience, and I'm feeling a decent to strong seven on it.

Anthony Fantano. Louis Cole. Jules Buckley. Metropole Orkest. Forever.