Vulfpeck: Hill Climber review – Christmas comes early

Happy Vulfpeck Day! In honour of the 2014 Vulf classic 1612, the unofficial Vulfpeck day has been set to the 16th December, conveniently a few weeks after the band’s fourth album release. Whilst this year is the first time I’ve celebrated Vulfpeck Day, I’ve been following the Michigan funksters’ activities for several years, having quickly become addicted to tracks like Outro, Wait for the Moment and The Birdwatcher. They’ve been fairly active since releasing their debut EP Mit Peck in 2011, despite keeping their live gigs fairly infrequent and mostly in the US. The band doesn’t just produce great funk and pop-jazz, but is full of hugely loveable and talented musicians. Charismatic multi-instrumentalist Jack Stratton leads the band, dancing wildly on-stage and dropping catchphrase after catchphrase in the band’s sole television interview. Joe Dart makes for a ridiculously cool bassist and Theo Katzman is yet another remarkable multi-instrumentalist, elevating tracks with his electric falsetto. Enigmatic keyboard master Woody Goss is the last of the founding fathers, with rubber-wristed guitarist Cory Wong having joined the regular lineup in recent years as well as saxophonist and keyboarist Joey Dosik.

Hill Climber is split into two sides, with Katzman behind the mic for the first four tracks and a second half occupied by instrumentals. Press play and you’ll be greeted with one of the most successful ventures into pop in Vulfpeck’s history on the song Half of the Way. Katzman’s compositional input is obvious here, and fans of his solo 2017 album Heartbreak Hits will recognise the harmony from the song My Heart Is Dead which turned out to be one of my favourite songs of all time when I discovered it last summer. Hill Climber’s opener is largely a funkified version of the rock and roll on My Heart Is Dead, and a joy to listen to. Katzman’s trademark double-tracked vocals are fine-tuned to perfection and the hook is incredibly strong, making Half of the Way the album’s stunning highlight. Consequently, I was instantly hooked to the track; it wracked up 22 plays in one week, beaten only by Parcels’s Tieduprightnow (24) and Still Woozy’s Habit (27) for the record of most plays in a week.

Darwin Derby rides on the immense momentum created by Half of the Way, captivating Vulfpeck’s typically hilarious but catchy feel. Animal references are all over the lyrics, made even better by the fun animations in the music video. Antwuan Stanley – the man responsible for the dreamy vocals on Wait for the Moment and 1612 – makes an all too brief appearance before sadly disappearing for the rest of the album. We can only hope he has more of a presence in Vulfpeck’s 2019 follow-up. A welcome surprise appearance comes in Darwin Derby with the legendary Vulfmon (voiced by Jack Stratton) giving a ridiculous monologue in the breakdown. It all makes for a highly memorable track, albeit one that would never live up to the standard set by the opener.

The pace of the opening double is taken down slightly for Lonely Town, a laid-back, plodding affair with a hint of the Beatles about it. It’s admittedly slightly repetitive and forgettable, but Katzman’s occasional vocal fill will leave you with a skip in your step. Fans of the aforementioned Heartbreak Hits will be more than familiar with the following track, Love Is a Beautiful Thing, which was arguably the prettiest ballad in Katzman’s recent solo album. Vulfpeck only embellish the song’s beauty on Hill Climber, with Monica Martin stylishly taking over half of the vocals and Dosik calmly doing his thing on the sax. It’s not free of the band’s usual antics though, with off-script remarks at the very end of the recording that have become a bit of a Vulfpeck trademark in recent years. It adds to the band’s informal feel, being refreshingly grounded and obviously in love with their music.

I’m afraid to say Hill Climber’s A-side concludes with a dud. Guest star Mike Viola replaces Katzman on the vocals on the somewhat off-kilter For Survival. Whilst the intro is promising, the groove fails to stick and turns out more embarrassing than quirky. It gets worse when a slide guitar makes a surprising entrance, seemingly having wandered away from the country music genre to find itself placed awkwardly in the middle of a funk album. Paired with Viola’s gritty vocals, For Survival sits uncomfortably on the unusual divide between funk and country, with the song prevailing as a success in neither genre.

Five tracks in, and old-time Vulfpeck fans are given exactly what they game for in the tracks Soft Parade and Lost My Treble Long Ago. Having set aside the need for a vocalist, the band goes back to basics, sticking firmly within their familiar genre, and to great success. Joe Dart takes the lead on the latter of the two tracks and, with a man like Dart at the helm, you know you’re in for a banger. However, despite a drum break, the song’s progression is frustratingly limited, venturing only a little from the central bass riff. It’s no Dean Town, put it that way.

Remarkably, the largely tuneless instrumental Disco Ulysses turned out to be a surprise fan favourite after it’s release, and it’s easy to see why. Here, it’s guitarist Wong that provides the largest helping of funk right from the off, helped along by Dart’s delicious bass. After a successful attempt at pop in Half of the Way and a miserable foray into country music in For Survival, Vulfpeck thankfully managed to full off their third genre-traversing experiment on Disco Ulysses, with (as you’d expect) disco. It’s the third time the band has released a song’s instrumental version well before it’s main release (previously done on Christmas in L.A. and Conscious Club) and this is surely their most promising instrumental to date. Trends from the previous two songs suggest Disco Ulysses‘s main release will come in 2019, but the vocalist remains an exciting mystery. Antwuan Stanley will probably be that vocalist, having largely missed out on Hill Climber, but calls for a rapper to really mix things up are not unwarranted – a fast flow done well would sound great on this track.

The Cup Stacker serves as a rather forgettable warm-up to the album’s finale. It does however feature some interesting high basslines and intricate drumming, making this one groovy but not attention grabbing, nor demanding of repeat listens.

It’s been five years since the last incarnation of It Gets Funkier, a song that has proved to be incredibly versatile since it’s inception on Vulfpeck’s debut EP in 2011. The original set an incredibly high standard, and the slowed-down, heavily electronic sequel divided fans. The squirming, soft funk of It Gets Funkier III proved even less popular amongst fans and, perhaps having realised the song has run it’s course on slower tempos, Vulfpeck has really turned the tempo to max on It Gets Funkier IV. The result is decidedly less funky but the most enjoyable of the four tracks. Stratton’s clav pummelling must be seen to be believed and a wonderfully chirpy muted piano played by Dosik reinvigorates the B-section melody. Composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Louis Cole is put to work keeping pace on a paired-down set of drums, and combines blissfully with the swift fingers of Dart in an incredible bass and drum breakdown. Can it get any funkier? It will surely take at least several years for Vulfpeck to reinvent this song again for its fifth edition.

Vulfpeck is an easy band to criticise. For those with little knowledge of the band’s general charisma, the lyrics can seem dull, ridiculous and obsessed with the topic of love. Likewise, the It Gets Funkier series can seem rather pointless and the regular, end-of-track yabbering can be annoying. It’s also easy to point out that Vulfpeck is basically a bunch of white blokes (minus Antwuan) with a nerdy love for their now niche genre. But all that misses the point. You only need to listen to classics like Funky Duck or Captain Hook to know that Vulfpeck isn’t a band that’s trying to make you think profound thoughts about life or loss or even love. They just want to make you smile and dance and have a good time, because that’s exactly what they’re doing when creating their music. They clearly don’t intend to be taken seriously, and that’s what I so dearly love about them. This is a band that focuses on making you happy through the happiness of its musicians, and in my opinion that’s exactly what music is all about.