Album Review: Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon

Aging musicians releasing collaborative solo albums fronted by an all-star lineup of vocalists is a real marketable tool right now. Big name guitarists such as Slash and Carlos Santana are cashing in on pushing mediocre lifestyle music on their devoted fans who listen with the pretense, "Hey, I like (add dull MOR artist name here) and I like 70's classic rock/80's hair metal! This song must be good!" Millions of units sold and multiple Grammy wins later, mainstream opinion becomes the truth obscuring what the product really is: an glossy, over-constructed collection of songs with no common thread beyond the one money driven focal point whose name graces the album cover. With the album release from Dave Sitek's (of TV On The Radio's fame) Maximum Balloon on a major label, it brings notice to some strange parallels to the star-studded collaborative/big money product push. The overarching debate is this: Is Maximum Balloon a well-orchestrated, cohesive effort or merely a pedantic collection of tracks with a couple gems found amidst the rubble?

Maximum Balloon has some large shoes to fill with Sitek as a main creative force in musicianship and production behind TV On The Radio. The comparison if unfair is definitely inevitable. One thing is obvious from the kickoff: this is no TVOTR project. "Groove Me", featuring vocals from Theophilus London, is a sexy pop hit in the making featuring funky keys and Prince-like guitar jabs that juxtapose the industrial hum and roll under the London's assured voice. The nearest tracks to his Sitek's early efforts are by no surprise the tracks fronted by TVOTR frontmen Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. Adebimpe's track "Absence of Light" has that slinky buzz meshing with Adebimpe's hefty voice that raises the hair on your neck while the beat punches you in the gut, making it the album's standout track. Malone's offering "Shakedown" is soulful and smooth, reaching beyond the doo-wop style carried by horns and chimes, sounding like a Curtis Mayfield jam brought back to life 500 years in the future. Oh, and that is a good thing.

The female vocal representation ably colors the wide open canvas on Maximum Balloon, often sounding like a different take or a remix, for better or worse, of their band of origin. The track "Communion" sung by Karen O has a Yeah Yeah Yeahs flavor via new wave that is sultry and swaying but misses the guitar crunch that fans expect. That similar retro pop is found on the Katrina Ford fronted "Young Love", a New Order groove that misses the subtlety of its inclination. The best female vocals on Maximum Balloon goes to Little Dragon, whose track "If You Return" blends the her effortless performance with jittery guitars and an ethereal synth that is a lovely homage to the best of 1980's pop. On that topic, I would be negligent if I did not mention the David Byrne track "Apartment Wrestling", that lifts the best nervous riffs from Remain In Light but retaining the contemporary flow, making me wonder what the Talking Heads would sound like formed circa 2005.

To answer the question posed earlier, Maximum Balloon leans more towards an album rather than a collection, with Sitek borrowing from his influences, then giving them a whitewash of futuristic industrial buzz that makes him a sought after producer. The diversions in sound are never so great to draw away from the whole album and the standouts rival anything in the TVOTR catalog. The result is Dave Sitek's outlook on the direction of pop music that touts a evenly distributed balance between memorable earworm melodies and au courant indie sensibility. It makes me look forward to the future of music while reminding of an amazing and varied past.

Purchase Maximum Balloon here.

Maximum Balloon - Groove Me


Maximum Balloon - Absence of Light


Maximum Balloon - If You Return


Maximum Balloon - Pink Bricks