album review: still flyin’, neu ideas.

Still Flyin’’s Neu Ideas album brightens your day with its dance pop ‘hamm-jam’ rhythms – a term the 15-piece band coined to represent living life to the fullest.

The recent release follows their debut 2009 album Never Gonna Touch the Ground and it seems the band has developed over the last two years.

Neu Ideas is a refined studio-album but still shines with what the band is known best for – free-wheeling, rockin’ tunes.

It’s not often that your favourite song is the last track, but ‘Higher Than Five’ is a mesmerising song that is a great, unexpected surprise to end the album. The tempered lows in the 8-minute song brings new substance to Neu Ideas. ‘Bull Riff’ is another standout track – an internal monologue made to be played late-night at festivals, on the dancefloor and bonfire parties. The song, different to the usual Still Flyin’ sound, has enough charm to make the record worth listening to, even if you don’t get past this track. The famous hamm-jam sound of Still Flyin’ is brought to the forefront in ‘Runaway Train II’ with its percussive echoes and fun atmosphere.

The American band is rotating collective Rocksteady outfit from San Francisco comprising members of The Aislers Set, Ladybug Transistor, Dear Nora, Masters of the Hemisphere, Je Suis France, Bright Lights, and Track Star. With their plethora of influences including reggae, punk, gospel, euphoro-pop – all fighting to be heard – it’s amazing this album is so coherent and flowing.

While there are some low moments during Neu Ideas, the high moments outweigh them and it’s definitely worth putting on the stereo at 3am.