Song Review: It's No Fun Not To Like Pop by Wayne Krantz on Krantz Carlock Lefebvre

If you are familiar with Wayne Krantz then you know that he employs an "anything goes" approach to his music. He is anti-formula. He is the moment. So, when you press play and start listening to track one of his 2009 release, "Krantz Carlock Lefebvre", you will most likely not know what to expect. Don't expect the "Your Basic Live" approach. He entered a studio for this album. He wrote and arranged and had to pre-conceive something. Given Krantz's background and the fact that he will actually have to map a pre-made notion, what better title could he choose than "It's No Fun Not To Like Pop"?

The song begins with a tight groove common of Krantz's style. Immediately the epic sound of Keith Carlock's drums enter and Tim Lefebvre's bass jumps in with his unconventional approach and we instantly know that this is in fact the long awaited album by one of the most amazing trios the music world has ever heard.

What will strike you as somewhat odd for Wayne's music is the addition of vocals. Vocally, there is no form such as verse, chorus and bridge. Picture Wayne playing his guitar one night and coming across a vocal hook. That is all it is. It certainly does not remind us of what we normally hear from him, but the message this simple line conveys is one that we know Wayne feels strongly about and one us fans can agree with.

Compositionally we can instantly hear the Krantzisms. His deep grooves and oddly timed harmonic phrasing jumps out. Krantz adds a few twists and turns and Keith Carlock plays to the melody and the beat at the same time. Tim Lefebvre finds that last bit of space and fills it perfectly. This is what we have all loved.

As if trying to display the many strengths of this particular trio right off the bat, Krantz has composed a few sections we can call break downs. There is the general feeling of composition but the trio moves through it like it is all new and on the spot. From there he creates a few more jamming hooks that lead to more breakdowns and eventually to the full forced sound that the trio has come to perfect. Carlock starts slamming his groovy non-grooves and Lefebvre starts exploring his quirky funk. Krantz throws his strong distorted rhythmic lead lines on top and we have that classic Krantz Carlock Lefebvre sound.

As the chaos melts we are back at the top with the vocal hook put on top of a groove reminicient of the head, yet harmonically altered to give us the feeling that there is so much more to come in the remainder of the this album.

Any big fan of Wayne Krantz would have been eagerly waiting for this album. This superb trio had been paving its own road in its own foreign land for some time and we all had the feeling that this was something special. They had to go in the studio and record. "It's No Fun Not To Like Pop" is track one from this album. While a studio could hardly capture what this trio does in a live setting, Krantz did a great job of putting his musical world on record. "It's No Fun Not To Like Pop" is essentially a bold statement spoke in the language of Wayne Krantz.