Confidence Man – Confident Music for Confident People
Confidence Man bring the party with their debut album
‘I must confess… / I’ve been sleeping with your ex ‘cause I heard he was the best,’ self-confessed wanker Janet Planet sings on album opener Try Your Luck, setting a precedent for a record that never really lets up from the get-go in both energy and droll lyricism.
Melbourne-based Confidence Man – comprising of Planet alongside Sugar Bones, Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild – draw influences across 70s disco and funk, 80s hip-hop, 90s Nuyorican soul, Madchester bagginess and 90s rave to create their own confident brand of 2018 electro pop. Confident Music for Confident People is an erratic mix of genres that shouldn’t work, but it’s masterfully stitched together, making for a beautifully weird and wonderful sonic tapestry that feels both nostalgic and fresh in equal measure.
While its chorus of ‘C.O.O.L cooool / I’m a cool party girl in a cool party world’ wouldn’t be out of place on a RuPaul’s Drag Race Lipsync for Your Life, C.O.O.L. Party combines 80s hip-hop with Deee-lite’s Groove is in the Heart and is carried by the funkiest of basslines and cheesy synths. It's topped with a like, totally awesome Californian ‘valley girl’-style monologue from Planet ('Me and the girls like to go out on the weekend') as she heads on a BNO, at one point reminiscing; ‘I even went to a party where a guy shoved a lightbulb up his ass / And to be honest, this one is the best / Y’know, it’s the party of the year.’
Elsewhere, Out the Window captures all the wonder of Happy Mondays’ Step On or Primal Scream’s Loaded, but with the punch of fellow Aussie natives Jagwar Ma; Catch My Breath is reminiscent of Disclosure’s 2013 banger When a Fire Starts to Burn, although it later takes an unexpected 90s rave turn sounding like a cross between 2 Unlimited, Donna Summer and Gossip; and bits of Bubblegum sound like they could've been ripped straight from an episode of Sesame Street.
Confidence Man are a band who know exactly what they want; with a fucking excellent sense of humour to boot, they shouldn't be taken too seriously. Confident Music for Confident People is littered with unexpected flourishes, comical call-and-responses and an overriding element of fun. It's surely the party of the year.
Listen to: Boyfriend (Repeat), C.O.O.L. Party, Better Sit Down Boy