Lounge FM - Love Will Let You Down (2018)

Love Will Let You Down – stylized so that the word “down” is slipping away – is a downer title. But the psychedelic funky pop tracks of Lounge FM really aren’t sad sounding songs. It’s more like they have ennui. The band describes their sound better than I can though so let’s slip into some “Friday night bath music.”

The Winnipeg band cruise through their 11 tracks on the back of billowing steam. The psychedelic vibes are strong here – it’s like the bath water has been spiked with a rainbow bath bomb – as the songs whirl themselves into a lethargic dream-like swirl. Instrumental tracks “Loungin'” and “Loungin’ pt. II” are right out of a 1970’s swingers bar with their sultry mid-tempo grooves and throughout Love Will Let You Down we hear moaning guitar solos and delicate keyboard fingering. The first words we hear off the album are “oh, god, fuck” in a tone that is both melancholic and carnal.

And there is a lot of lust that floats around Lounge FM’s record. “Come to bed,” croons lead singer Corey Wohlgemuth, pleading with a woman who is fraternizing with others at a party. When she is by his side, on the rare upbeat track “So Wonderful” for example, things are well, wonderful. Lounge FM do pump the breaks on all of this lust though on “Fast Love.” In a near inaudible falsetto, Wohlgemuth starts off welcoming his lover but by the second half of the track, he decides to call it a night (“If that’s cool with you”) and saves some for another day.

As heard on the album’s two standout tracks, lust isn’t the only thing that makes Lounge FM feel good. “Drugzzz” is a lengthy surreal sounding track that makes you feel like you’re rotating in a circle. Just when you think you’re getting your bearings, muffled voices float into the track and Lounge FM hit you with dose after does of guitar riffs, one sounds like it’s a theremin emitting the melody, and you feel completely strung out. “Barry’s Jazz Bar” is Lounge FM’s local refuge from the cruel world. Here the beer never runs out and Barry always has their back even in the darkest of times.