Superfood are a Birmingham based band that have been working hard for such a long time, playing numerous shows around the UK. Since releasing their debut EP back in 2013, it seems like the band haven’t really stopped.
Their debut record Don’t Say That (2014) was met with some encouraging reviews, especially from The Line of Best Fit, which must have been a confidence boost. However it was difficult to see what Superfood were going to do next, as it was interesting to see where they would take their sound.
Well three years on and the band have released their sophomore album Bambino which has got a lot of people interested, to see if they could top themselves.
The album kicks off with the vibrant ‘Where’s the Bass Amp?’ , which could only be named after a personal story, and it sets the tone perfectly. With the cool little samples of people talking and with it blending in well with the instrumentation, it has a fresh sound.
This quickly leads into ‘I Can’t See’ which is easily one of the best songs on the record, with the slick lyric hook of “I Don’t want to go it alone” as you can feel the desperation in the vocals.
The album has this tone running through it with a slightly laid back reggae style combining with a ska twist as it has a lot of upstrokes of the guitar.
The entire first half of the album is exquisite with a daydreamy songs like ‘Natural Supersoul’ , ‘Need a Little Spider’ and ‘Raindance‘ all providing a great palette. These songs provide a great pocket in the album where it captures a mood, and influence it however they want to.
‘Double Dutch‘ was one of the songs the band released ahead of the album, and it really is a stand out song. The band have a clear understanding of how they want to utilize samples to make the song whole. It’s as if Superfood are creating a whole back story just off this one sample, and it’s done so well.
The album is full of these cool fillers that add to the entire album as an overall piece of work. ‘Lov’ is a great example of this as it’s a simplistic acoustic instrumental, but adds something to the record.
‘Clo Park’ wraps the album up which is a cool little song, unfortunately it’s not as strong as the ones that went before it. This was going to be a difficult task as the entire album is packed with big personality songs.
It’s clear the band have a firm grip on the music they want to make, and they know their sound increasingly well. The only thing to do now is to continue building on it.
As cliché as it sounds, this album serves as a matured version of their first album. The band have gone back and refined their sound, tightening up the screws and come back with something even better. The band should be ecstatic with what they’ve achieved here, cannot wait for their next project.
8/10
Words by Alex Wise @AJWise
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