Cast - Kicking Up the Dust (2017) FLAC

Troubled Times, Cast's 2011 comeback, was a bit too indebted to the Brit-pop group's past. It was produced by John Leckie, who helmed their 1995 debut All Change, and it often seemed like a tribute to the glory days of Cool Britannia, a sound the band wisely doesn't replicate on its 2017 sequel Kicking Up the Dust. Originally crowd-funded but given a mass release, Kicking Up the Dust finds Cast embracing different rhythms and textures, sometimes hinting at a bit of tense funk and sometimes settling into a mellow simmer. Cast leader John Power doesn't abandon his core pop classicism -- at their heart, these songs are British pop in the tradition of the Beatles -- but the richer production gives Kicking Up the Dust considerable (and welcome) color, turning it into a stronger album than not only its predecessor, but such '90s efforts as Mother Nature Calls and Magic Hour, as well.

Tracklist:

01. Cast - Kicking Up the Dust
02. Cast - Roar
03. Cast - Do That
04. Cast - Further Down the Road
05. Cast - Paper Chains
06. Cast - Birdcage
07. Cast - Every Little Thing You Do
08. Cast - Baby Blue Eyes
09. Cast - How Can We Lose
10. Cast - Clear Blue Water
11. Cast - Out of My Hands