Funkywalkman :: "Los Angeles"

From the brains and baroque sensibilities of Princeton masterminds/brothers Matt and Jesse Kivel comes the one-off single, "Los Angeles" under the new moniker, Funkywalkman. Andrew Maury, of RAC fame, handles the mixing duties on a single that resounds with lilting and uplifting sensibilities. The packaged drums snap with an unironic Reagan-era purpose as synthesizers bubble and zap from somewhere far away. The lyrics arrive as the confessional sort, first-person diary entries like, "grey and rain in Los Angeles, I was born today" and "I don't think anybody knows the right way of thinking about it" and the especially untrue, "I don't care." It is, ostensibly, a break-up song couched in a catchy chorus and, what these brothers do better than almost anyone else, a series of very satisfying chord resolutions. The each line of the verses arc upwards before settling toward a logical and pleasing conclusion. Compartmentalized successfully, the verses burn luminescent tracer fire in parabola over the night sky of "Los Angeles" before the chorus resolves the problem of rising and falling with a frictionless hook, an effortless take-off into nothing.