Review Summary: Not to be overlooked.
Gently Tender, a fitting name for this indie pop/rock group. The frontman entertains with bass-heavy yet gentle singing, he casually reaches for notes as his voice slowly, sleepily crawls up. It took a bit to acquire the taste of his singing style but once I did it was quite pleasant. “Relaxing” is the topical word here, and harmonizations from Gently Tender’s backup female singer add an extra pillowy warmth. Calm yet engaging, plain but pretty, her harmonizations are continuously tranquil, and when she fronts a couple tracks it’s quite enjoyable. The backup vocals are also an agreeable contrast, a gentle wash colliding with the droll lead vocalist who almost sounds like a game show announcer -
it’s a new caaaaar!
A pleasant horn selection is often the instrumental usage of choice here, interwoven casually, but also more front and center - sometimes brash and funky. The acoustics were less interesting to me, their work is almost unnoticeable yet I believe that’s part of the vibe. The album is a notably casual listen, something to put on in the background. Despite catchy hooks and choruses that had me glued, it’s still lazy day at the beach vibes, I could practically envision walking past this band on the sands as I dodged a beach ball. It appears that the band are jamming out in a session due to the music’s ease of flow, but calculated catchiness reveals the thought they put into this. I especially enjoyed the song Right Time which seemed to nail their aesthetic.
Take Hold Of Your Promise! reveals a band that know their craft well. Sonically it’s not complex, you’ll find increasingly simple and repetitive choruses, equally simple acoustic patterns and laid back horn segments. I may complain about the simplicity of similar indie albums but I love the easy going casualness of the tunes here. The tunes here don’t need complications, they just need to be felt. If I were to conjure up an extra complaint I might say the lead singer’s overtly stylized vocals can be a smidgen extra sometimes, but that’s simply fishing for critiques. This is a compelling album from start to finish, and that should be celebrated.
