Toro Y Moi – What For?

Toro Y Moi, aka Chazwick Bundick, has dipped his toes in many styles on his previous albums. So what has this his third record What For? got in store? A little bit of R&B? Check. Some ’70s-style smoothness a la Steely Dan? Check. A twist of neo-psych coupled with a splash of disco and a squirt of Todd Rundgren? Sure. Why not! In truth, ol’ Chaz seamlessly pulls all of this together in an interesting and engaging manner.
Opener ‘Empty Nesters’ sets the tone nicely and also has some nifty lyrics: “Smothered and covered by my high school dreams/ Call Mom and Daddy cause the nest is empty/ And so are you.” The slight is so sweetly delivered that you can’t help but sing along. It’s been getting quite a bit of airplay on BBC Radio 6 lately and rightly so.
‘Lilly’ comes on like the love child of John Lennon and Mac Demarco: as the clavi/vocoder grooves, the guitar cranks out a slick disco riff and the harmonies drift over a thumping beat. The intoxicating sonic brew is topped off by TYM singing, “Every day is like this, no one gets nowhere/ Everyone is like this, no one gets nothing like you, like me.” In truth, there are too many great moments to highlight, so probably best to just put the headphones on, kick back and lose yourself in the heady trip of What For? I say it’s one of the best albums so far this year.

Key Track - 'The Flight'