OJ Law: Yesterday Is A Distant Dream

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  09 Mar 2012 in Review

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Yesterday is a Distant Dream kicks off with soulful indie pop ‘Rooftop’, sounding like an amalgam of Patrick Stump pre and post-solo venture. While thematically consistent with the rest of the record, it might just surprise you how much the opening track isn’t representative of OJ Law. What follows would remind you musically of anything from dance rock OGs New Order to noobs Foals to even Robin Thicke when he gets all falsetto-ey.

One highlight, doo wop track ‘Start/Stop’, even recalls The Supremes in its pure ability to get us grooving and finger-snappy. OJ has accumulated quite the talent ever since his bedroom musician days (garnering the help of members of Seven Collar T-Shirt and Komplot), and it shows in the production of the album. The layers on title track ‘Yesterday is a Distant Dream’ are impressive, even more extraordinary when you realise that this is all entirely self-produced.

The sonic influences might have made any other act’s album sound like a hotchpotch of their favourite bands, but OJ has a distinctive enough of a voice to anchor his menagerie of band muses to a single sound. Even the plainly obvious Weezer-inspired ‘Lovers’ Tiff’ is, well, inspired under the capable music acumen of OJ. Yesterday is a Distant Dream took OJ 3 years to finish, and it pays off.

LISTEN TO: ‘Start/Stop’ ‘Fantastic Adventure’ ‘Yesterday is a Distant Dream’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: Patrick Stump, New Order, The Whitest Boy Alive
RATING: 3.5

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