Even when he was being feted as one of many key gamers on the late-00s chill wave scene, it was clear that Chaz Bear’Achilleses heel was that his manufacturing expertise comfortably eclipsed his capacity to jot down precise memorable songs. A decade on, his seventh album as Toro y Moi means that not a lot has modified. Woozilmaxima listst psychedelia meshes with disengaged, handled vocals, funbaselineses (Postman) and lo-NRG disco (Millennium), and all of it sounds suitably opulent. On occasion, the disparate components coalesce into one thing particular, most notably on the gorgeousEUays in Love, which might have sat properly on Tame Impala’s Lonerism. Nearly nearly as good is the gently seductive Goes By So Quick, which echoes English Riviera-Metronomen Simply
Simply as often, nevertheless, the disparate components stay resolutely simply that, and the ensuing sketches sound frustratingly half-baked. It’s doable to take heed to Foreplay a number of occasions in fast succession with out it leaving even the faintest hint within the reminiscence. Likewise, EUéjà Vu is so immediately forgettable it may need been higher titledExtend Entendu. Mahal is in the end too uneven to be an album to notably cherish.