If you’re reading this review and you haven’t listened to “IV” yet, stop right now and go do that instead.
The fourth installment from the young Canadian quartet BadBadNotGood, IV will leave you wondering if in this case, it’s really the fourth time that’s the charm. The self-proclaimed hip hop/jazz group, sometimes more simply referred to as “BBNG,” delivers with confidence and determination. The same band that captivated a generation very much out-of-love with jazz somehow strikes gold again, breaking into a new sound more completely their own than any prior releases. Don’t just take it from me, IV landed the number one spot on the US Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart in 2016, and received numerous accolades from music critics worldwide.
Enormous popularity, almost surprisingly, came to BBNG after clever plays to 90’s nostalgia and the underground hip hop pulse. Covers of The Legend of Zelda soundtrack and hip hop super hits such as Nas’s “The World Is Yours,” Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Brooklyn Zoo,” gained BBNG instant popularity among young listeners. Additional collaborations with contemporary rap artists like GhostFace Killah (of Wu-Tang) and Tyler the Creator of Odd Future (OFWGKTA) have only further cemented BBNG’s place in the hearts of their many fans.
Now on their fourth studio album, BBNG finally seems to be stepping into a realm of their own. IVs sound is entirely unique from the rest of BBNG’s discography, yet still manages to captivate the listener for its nearly hour-long duration. The album begins with “And that, too,” an oddly eerie, ephemeral track loaded with offbeat echoes and synthesizers. Just when it seem to be getting a little too far fetched, things fall right back into place with BBNG’s classic hip hop/jazz fusion sound for track number two: “Speaking Gently.”
The album also boasts numerous features, including prominent artists like producer/DJ Kaytranada, rapper Mick Jenkins, and saxophonist Colin Stetson. A few personal favorites include “Time Moves Slow,” featuring Future Islands singer Sam Herring, and “In Your Eyes” with vocals by Charlotte Day Wilson. Both overwhelmingly bittersweet and sentimental, they’ll leave you near tears for a lost romance you’ve never had. Soft but driving drumming supports a gentle mix of strings, woodwinds, and piano on some tracks, while others combine harsh, syncopated beats with the blaring sound of a baritone saxophone or vintage timbre of the cs60, as on “Confessions, Pt. II” and “Lavender.” Other honorable mentions go to the bizarre but likable “Chompy’s Paradise” and its innocent, quirky orchestration.
Last but not least, IV finishes with its anchor “Cashmere,” and brings you down gently from the wild ride that makes up the 45 or so odd minutes building to the album’s culminant track. “Cashmere” sounds like what you expected to hear from the orchestra your family begrudgingly attends every holiday season, what you only wished the high school band could pull off during mandatory assemblies, and continues the same happysad beauty that characterizes IV. Above all, “Cashmere” sounds of hope, acceptance, and serenity. If there were ever a song to play for your grandparents to prove that “millennials” can understand music these days, this is definitely it.
In summary, I wish to extend a thank you to BadBadNotGood from your fellow twenty-somethings everywhere, for continuing to produce the soundtrack to our tumultuous lives, and for making it one we enjoy listening to. The ever building stress, tension, and perpetual bad news without clear meaning that comprises so much of our existence seems to make a bit more sense with your music playing in the back. In a way, IV‘s unique sound and diverse features send the message that in the face of such divisive times, we search for a solution together. And if four white guys from Canada can somehow resurrect the soul of Jazz, perhaps we shouldn’t give up on hope yet either.
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