Michael Rault – “Neither Love Nor Money”
It feels like I’ve been waiting for more from Michael Rault since the moment I got his last LP. I know that sounds greedy, but It’s A New Day Tonight was such an exact pinpoint of what I was looking for in an album when it landed in 2018 that I practically wore it out flipping it side to side. Rault’s blend of Apple Records-era power pop, soft-flicker psychedelics, and AOR ‘70s felt timeless but sadly, not endless. That runout always came too soon. Rault returns this year with an eponymous LP, again for Daptone’s rock imprint Wick. The first cut from the new album proves him to be a perfect fit for the label, leaning into the past for a track that’s draped in studio pop, lapping at McCartney, Rhodes, and Rundgren. Yet, there’s an undercurrent of funk in the organ, in the horn lines, feeling like Rault’s buttoned-down pop has been hanging with the soul session players at night, feeding off of the symbiotic grooves wafting from the stage. Bits of Sly, Stevie, and Bill Withers aren’t out of place in the vibes here either. The cut is paired with a 70s-soaked heist clip that sees Rault and the band run a grindhouse car chase around L.A. The new album is out June 10th.
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