Tank and the Bangas waste no time speaking to the times on
Red Balloon, the New Orleanians' opalescent second album for Verve Forecast. The band skips and bops along on the opening "Mr. Bluebell" as
Tarriona "Tank" Ball, lyrically clever and vocally nimble as ever, checks off the U.S. Capitol attack, prescription drug dependency, social media, and smartphones, among other ills and issues, ending with a sweet-sarcastic "Desensitized is the new wave," repeated several times for effect.
Wayne Brady, in the role of paranoiac radio DJ -- the first of the album's several jocks -- heightens the tension by helping the band segue into the agitated electro-trap of "Anxiety," a stream-of-consciousness dispatch from a padded cell. "Communion in My Cup" later contains some of
Ball's finest blithe boasts ("Man, I'm
Michael in a skirt/Bitch, I'm
Prince in a blouse") but later sniffs, "Look at your president, look at your government -- you feeling powerless." There's a good amount of say-what-now rambunctiousness with "Who's in Charge," where
Ball handles the sighing intro, the fully amped call-and-response, and cartoonish interjections, and throughout "Big," a swinging and bounding collaboration with an operatic
Big Freedia. Listeners with an aversion to the zeitgeist razzle-dazzle and rambunctious frivolity are very well served. "Why Try" and "No ID," located in the middle, are supple disco-funk throwbacks; the latter is as bubbly-tough as anything off
Evelyn "Champagne" King's first album (if with 2022 attitude). They lead to a second half where the madness is mostly mellow. There's the
Earth, Wind & Fire-meets-
Mtume (in the French Quarter) romantic sway of "Cafe du Monde," featuring
Jamison Ross and
Trombone Shorty. "Jellyfish" is old-school romantic escape, while "Heavy" is the most seductive song they've recorded yet. Moreover, good luck to any band that strives to create songs of irrepressible spirit that are as beautiful and soul nourishing as "Stolen Fruit" or the
Lalah Hathaway collaboration "Where Do We All Go." It's no coincidence that the first of the two mentions
Stevie Wonder by name and that the finale recalls that artist's peerless 1972-1976 period. ~ Andy Kellman