Yacht Rock Revue: Hot Dads in Tight Jeans (2020)
“I had a midlife crisis. That’s why we made this album,” says Nick Niespodziani, the group’s singer, guitarist, and spiritual leader. “Everyone in the band is a dad now, so we needed to make this happen, before we become grandpas. I’ve sung ‘Escape’ by Rupert Holmes at least a thousand times, and if that isn’t paying your dues, I don’t know what is.”
When is a cover band not a cover band?
In the case of front man Nick Niespodziani and his band Yacht Rock Revue, the answer would be when after a decade your tribute to 70’s and 80’s soft rock takes on such a life of its own that it pushes aside other musical aspirations and, like it or not, you’re a dedicated career yacht rock band. Writing new and original yacht rock.
What is yacht rock? It is–or was–or actually still is, I guess, a brand of Adult Oriented Rock that had a West Coast flavor and proliferated mostly from around the mid-70’s to the early 80’s.
The term came later, like around 2005, and was meant to be a less-than-complimentary label ascribed to the music of artists such as Boz Scaggs, Toto, Styx, Player, Little River Band, Orleans, Robbie Dupree, Christopher Cross, Atlanta Rhythm Section and the Michael McDonald-era Doobie Brothers.
But the thing is: people love Boz Scaggs, Toto and the rest. They can’t get enough “Africa” and “Lido Shuffle”. And bands like Yachtley Crew and Yacht Rock Revue can seemingly make a living leading lively polyester pop singalongs and crooning ‘how long has this been going on‘ for, well, as long as they want it to go on.
The genre is too legit to quit.
With artists like Bruno Mars, Pharrell Williams, Fitz and the Tantrums and Lizzo seasoning the pop charts with retro-leaning sounds, Niespodziani and company saw this as the time to surf the nostalgia wave with a collection of new tunes that seems to fall midway between this new/old soft funk and that breezy late-70’s California sound.
Even Rolling Stone magazine has taken notice of a new pop album that–far from being a throw-away genre exercise–is actually crafted with the same care and attention to musical detail as the music it pays homage to, thanks to producer Ben Allen.
While the sax solo in “Step” might hit boomers right in the Kenny Loggins, it’s the musical equivalent of an in-joke in the context of a winning pop tune.
The flute in “Another Song About California” could evoke Firefall or Lizzo, depending who’s listening. The song has an intro that was naggingly familiar-sounding; took me a while to realize what it reminded me of: the first chords of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone”.
As for “Bad Tequila”, I don’t know how any pop fan could find it anything but irresistible.
Yacht Rock Revue have successfully updated a genre much loved and much maligned but universally thought to be passé. And they’ve done so with a winking self-deprecation that is itself refreshing considering it’s the self seriousness of some 70’s bands (I’m looking at you, Eagles) that makes them off putting to some younger listeners.
These guys clearly don’t take themselves too seriously. But they have crafted a seriously ear-friendly pop–excuse me–yacht rock album.
Listen to: “Step”
Don’t miss: “Bad Tequila”
Listen to: “Another Song About California”
Listen to: “House in the Clouds”
Every Moment Has A Song 