Toronto’s BADBADNOTGOOD is nominally a jazz act, but they attack the genre with swagger, like a dusty rap sample come back to life. The group has collaborated with Ghostface Killah and Frank Ocean while also covering My Bloody Valentine and Feist. But BADBADNOTGOOD’s 2014 reinterpretation of Future Island’s synth-pop jam “Seasons (Waiting On You)” hits on another level. Sam Herring’s craggy growl shimmies, thanks to the band’s flair for dramatic R&B. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a necessary cover. The two were made for each other.
Herring and BADBADNOTGOOD team up again on “Time Moves Slow,” an original. It’s not as do-or-die as their first collaboration; this time, they take their time, as the title suggests. The tempo is stretched out like taffy, an atmospheric shuffle for Herring’s meditation on being “so low” (or “solo”?). Consider this the flip side to swagger: “Running away is easy / it’s the leaving that’s hard.”
“Time Moves Slow” appears on BADBADNOTGOOD’s IV, out now via Innovative Leisure.
–Art Levy
