BadBadNotGood: a bourbon to go with your sweater

Music always comes in ebbs and flows. I find my musical taste is a waxing and waning orb of emotional catharsis, inspiration, and inquiry. Recently the tides have washed up BadBadNotGood, thanks to their latest release IV. I discovered this gem when making a playlist of songs titled Time After Time, with the word Time in the title, or that had a prominent focus on the idea of time. Enter: IV's third track Time Moves Slowly (feat. Samuel T Herring).

Once I got passed the kitschy playlist of mine, I broke into the album and earnestly into BadBadNotGood's repertoire. The general tone is progressive neo-elevator-jazz-fusion that reads a few magazines about the late 1980's. I may be alone in this, but I think neo-elevator-jazz is relevant. By definition, it's job is to navigate an idle transitional time for the listener who is either trying to forget how lonely they are or cope with a claustrophobic proximity to strangers. Whether we seek to indulge this or not, it is an all-too-familiar feeling. In our current state of affairs, this mood is particularly precarious. Strangers elicit a growing anxiousness; alone, we question if we can trust the floor to be the same beyond the doors. 

BadBadNotGood gets it, and has stepped in as navigator. How? If you're not wearing a slightly concealing wool sweater au courant, they'll put one on you. Next, they'll pour you a glass of bourbon distilled to match your sweater. It's a tiny bit abrasive, but goes down smooth and pulls you along for the ride before you've entirely consented. Everything gets a bit softer, cozier, odder. When the preverbal elevator doors open, you might get off, or you might stick around to see if anyone will join you.