Single Review: Tasty

Tasty, the debut single from Auckland-based rock band Odds & Ends is exactly that. Bursting out of the starting line with a confident, tight, phat, and funky groove, it takes literally seconds before I feel my body moving along with it. Odds & Ends are a young band with a confidence and swagger that belies their collective ages.

This is funky, not in a Red Hot Chilli Peppers way, more like in a jazzy funky groove of One Million Dollars. This is experimental, but in a fascinating and not-alienating way. Not willing to follow a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure, or at least not willing to do so in a way that simply repeats the chords of the first verse, Tasty goes to some musically interesting and diverse places. In fact, they achieve more in the paltry 2 minutes 45 seconds of Tasty that many prog-rock bands do with twice that run-time. Through the straight-ahead pop-rock verse, the James Brownesque verse, the blue-eyed rap verse, the strange pseudo-Spanish/Western movie soundtrack verse, this all somehow still comes together. And it comes together in a coherent, effortlessly manner.

Where this song really shines though, is in its chorus. This is a massive, hook-laden chorus that holds everything else together, and will have you singing along immediately. The chorus lyrics may not invoke images like Bob Dylan’s poetry, or shine a light on political issues like early-U2, but they aren’t meant to. This is a song designed to feel good and they fit the mood of the song perfectly.

Odds & Ends are releasing this track with a big release party. Check them out, if this single is anything to go by it’s going to be a hell of a good time.