Old fans have nothing to worry about. His songwriting on “Anything In Return” remains much the same: He still talks almost exclusively about girls and relationships, but keeps his lyrics from sounding stale. The songs often revert to the same form of chopped, repetitious staccato vocal samples that characterized his older work, but he has undoubtedly descended from the ethereal, atmospheric heights of his first album, “Causers of This.”
“Cake,” one of the most radio-ready tracks on the new album, is a perfect example. It starts with an infuriatingly simple but infectious electronic keyboard progression. Then Bundwick’s feathery voice floats in, crooning “She knows/ I’ma be her boy forever.” He even uses Auto-Tune. It’s sugary. It’s catchy. It’s… pop.
But it’s not awful. It’s actually good. The entire album is. And Bundwick isn’t mocking pop music. He’s trying to rehabilitate it. He writes in the traditional pop paradigm of lust, love and loss. His musical toolkit is full of the electronic bells and whistles that helped define late 20th-century pop. But his take on the genre is modern. Earlier pop felt linear both in lyrical narrative and structure; “Anything In Return” feels more fractured. It makes sense.
Toro Y Moi is not making pop music just to make pop music. He’s trying to make pop music for our time. In this regard, “Anything In Return” succeeds at times, but fails at others, like in “Rose Quartz,” a loop-heavy track that fits better with Bundwick’s older, experimental music than with his modern pop. So the album’s not perfect. It is, however, sincere. (8/10)