Review Summary: Electrical, grounding
If it’s not the first two, by the time J.A.M. comes around you should be bobbing your head, tapping your foot, drumming your fingers, something. Wong’s groovy compositions in tandem with
Chromeo’s groovy delivery pile on top of each other, and you realize just how dedicated this album is to getting you moving. Power Station gets its energy from that electric connection between Wong’s compositions and your reactions, and for most of its hour-long runtime they are nothing less than stellar. On the first five tracks, the focus is this sweet, addictive funk-pop. It’s a strong start to the album, with catchy hooks abound. Crisis, with its falsetto vocals and slow, steady beat is the other highlight alongside J.A.M.
The second third opts for a very instrumental approach, taking things from pop to some slick jazz fusion. On this front, some could argue Wong’s just got more of the same going on, but is that really such a bad thing? Most of the names in those features have been doing what they do for years, if not decades, and every single one is just excellent. Here,
Mark Lettieri’s guitar work steals the show on Concrete.
The back third of Power Station takes a hard turn onto a dirt road. The sizable inclusion of bluegrass influenced material shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Wong’s work (the two Trail Songs EP’s released in 2020), but it still made me do a double take. It’s actually the first two of these - Road Trip and Over The Mountain - that are the highlights of the whole album for me. These two compositions in particular are overflowing with this sunny attitude and disposition. If that isn’t enough, the next two tracks feature bluegrass legend
Bela Fleck, and his banjo contributions add a wonderful laid-back feel.
On each third of this smorgasbord, there’s one solo Wong tune - his way of taking the spotlight for a moment. Every other track has a collaborator who always accentuates whatever he’s laying down. One man is much too few to run an energy grid, and through the magic of collaboration Power Station runs the gamut and flexes Wong’s muscles on all fronts. And that deserves recognition.
