With a band name as broad as it is free and easy, it’s fitting that Cool Sounds have been so comfortable with shifting styles from album to album. Led by Dainis Lacey, who emerges as the Kevin Parker-esque creative centre on this fifth LP, the Melbourne project has just undergone another surprise costume change.
After debuting with ’80s-inflected dream-pop on 2016’s ‘Dance Moves’, the band has often pursued a twangier sound since then, earning an AIR Award nomination for Best Country Album for 2018’s ‘Cactus Country’ and returning to an adjacent well of inspiration for the barroom Americana of last year’s ‘Bystander’. In between came 2019’s ‘More to Enjoy’, a tight and bubbly batch of indie pop that yielded a lasting earworm in the single ‘Around and Down’.
Now Lacey has steered Cool Sounds straight to the dancefloor for a funk/disco detour on which he plays nearly every instrument. ‘Like That’ announces this stark vibe shift immediately, the bustling bass and percolated beat of opener ‘6 or 7 More’ giving way to playful breakdowns and talky backup vocals from bandmate Ambrin Hasnain. Lacey’s unusual singing and waggling guitar hooks provide the connecting thread to past Cool Sounds outings, with his vocal delivery still making quirky little leaps in intonation at the end of most lines.
Not that there’s a lot of downtime for analysing such idiosyncrasies: with 10 upbeat songs each running under four minutes, this is a propulsive record. Near the start of the album, ‘Part Time Punk’ and ‘Hello, Alright, You Got That’ evoke Talking Heads and their offshoot Tom Tom Club, respectively. Other tracks quickly double down on the fleeting hooks that distinguish Lacey’s whimsical arrangements. It’s as if we’re always catching the instruments in mid-conversation, chattering away with giddy enthusiasm and frequent asides instead of sticking to one narrative at a time.
Again, it’s worth noting that Lacey handled the bulk of the instrumentation here, though his co-producer Dylan Young (Way Dynamic, Snowy Band) chipped in alongside Hasnain (also Lacey’s bandmate in Partner Look) and saxophonist Pierce Morton (Robot Fox). Listening to ‘Like That’, you can imagine Lacey programming every one of those playful drum fills and synthetic handclaps – or inserting just the right glossy synth line to usher in the Prince-esque ‘Dance!’, complete with just a knowing song title.
It makes sense for Lacey to step out as the architect behind Cool Sounds on this record, which often plays like a meticulously arranged private dance party. There’s never a feeling that he’s chasing trends or international success, but rather following exactly what he wants to hear and then enlisting his friends to finish it off. As long as the results are fun, everything is up for grabs.
That gives ‘Like That’ an appealing purity of purpose, and listening in on it is a lot like being invited to that imaginary discotheque in his head.
