(2020) Greyhounds - Primates          


Review:
Any lead-off track better give as good as the album itself, so Primates coming out swinging on what sounds like a Sly & the Family Stone cover sets the Greyhounds‘ fifth formal full-length swiftly afoot. Co-composed with onetime T-Bird & the Breaks leader Tim Crane (soon aka Jank Sinatra), “Tune In” grooves like a breakthrough anthem for Austin duo Anthony Farrell and Andrew Trube, its airy and ambient soul wafting weightlessly on the former’s electric piano as it cushions his yearning vocal and the rhythmic swell from the latter monkey man’s guitar. Deeply rhythm and dues (paid), Primates suddenly clambers to the top of your Black Pumas RIYL, even though 2020 marks Farrell & Trube gigging together 20 years. Accumulator in 2014 jammed a notion and motion once called Horde, then Bonnaroo, and drove the pair to help nucleus JJ Grey & Mofro for years. Change of Pace two years later smoothed out the bumps, soothed out the rock. Cheyenne Valley Drive (2018) then motored its sublime ride to Memphis per its storied sponsor Argent Records, “WMD” (weapons of mass destruction) dropping the locals’ first instance of compositional transcendence. Overseen by cottage industry Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, who produced albums for both Grupo Fantasma and Brownout, Primates bumps and sways with contributions from ATX drum constant John Speice, harmonies by Jazz Mills and Georgia Bramhall, and orange-colored vinyl courtesy of homies Nine Mile Records. In that vein and as with Crane on “Tune In,” collaboration produces dopamine. Penned by Dante Schwebel of Hacienda and Spanish Gold, second song “Stay Tonight” amplifies a blooming sound, in which Farrell’s comfort moan expands as big as the summer sky. Afterward, “People in the Park,” written with Berlin, street hops like no less than Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Moments of gospel ascension on the multilayered title track, tracing mankind from the trees to its current predicament on this “rock in space” (“Where do we go from here?”), stretch out on the flipside. “Long Goodbye” lilts sweeter than a hammock and “Omon’i” induces pure desert trance. All three push Primates across the finish line like triple crown Greyhounds.





Track List:
1.Tune In 03:35
2.Stay Here Tonight 03:33
3.People In The Park 03:29
4.Nobody's Judging 02:48
5.Pick Up The Phone 03:16
6.Bet It All  03:29
7.Primates 04:19
8.Long Goodbye 03:05
9.This I Know 03:53
10.Omon'i 03:17


Media Report:
Genre: americana, rock, soul
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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