Baio - The Names

Baio
The Names
2015

Baio is the side project for Vampire Weekend guitarist Chris Baio and with it He seeks to create indie dance music inspired by David Bowie and Bryan Ferry. At times the album is bright and poppy then also slips into some more Jamie xx territory. Particularly the song "I Was Born In A Marathon" seems very derivative of something that Jamie xx would do. However that does not in any way make this a transcendent record. For the most part this album would fall into the electropop category but it also has some strong twee and Lo-Fi elements. Baio's voice is almost completely put through some kind of synth giving it a distant computerish sound. "All The Idiots" is one of the tracks the focuses solely on dance and despite it's super twee nature it is actually quite successful even at seven minutes long. The thing you want from this record however is more; more sound, more bass, more something to hang on to. Instead you are left with a lot of emptiness pinning for more.

Baio much like Vampire Weekend definitely makes the case that He is much smarter than you and if you don't get it than it is probably just over your head with this album. There is a great deal of attention paid to making the record seem heady when perhaps it just is not all that great. The Names has the potential of being one of those records your friends are incensed that you don't like, and you never really. The reality is it just is not that great. A nice little piece of electro-dance-pop The Names is going to enamor some and revile others. The truth is it's place is probably somewhere right in the middle.

5.5 out of 10