Woolfy - If You Know What's Good For Ya (2009)

If Ya Know What's Good For Ya! eloquently brings together varying styles and sounds to great effect. Woolfy's vast knowledge and influences produce a seamless blend of funk, pop music, dirty disco, rare grooves, and new wave full of epic guitar lines and infectious lyrics.

Starting the album off with a bang, "The Warehouse" lays the groundwork with its mid-tempo, thumping kick drum, angular guitar work, and cryptic, distorted bass-lines. Woolfy's lush vocals hover over an electronic vocoder chorus to haunting effect. "Oh Missy" and "That Lady" are both dark, rhythmic tracks with echoing vocals, early '80s electro percussion, thick drum machine claps, menacing bass, and some wicked cowbell. "Loa the Disco" smoothes things out with its psychedelic electronic disco percussion and arpeggiating space bass, and transitions into "Looking Glass," the dark and emotional lyrics and tone of which would not be out of place in an '80s John Hughes film soundtrack.

"Hesitation" picks up the pace with granular electro bass, layered sound effects, and pop punk vocals sliding effortlessly into an instrumental funk dub ending. "Sonic Monday" has some Arthur Russell-influenced guitar work and a smidgen of folk sensibility, accompanied by psychedelic synths revolving around Woolfy's Factory Records vocal stylings and subject matter.

"Too Far Gone" penetrates and probes the listener's inner third ear with whispered chants and syncopated rhythms under an aloof synth melody. Has he gone too far? Surely the catchy vocals, vibrating dub bass, and Steely Dan-esque keyboards of "Odyssey" prove otherwise. "Pink Champagne," a unique, lush, melodic acoustic guitar track with euphoric vocals and a violin accompaniment, makes for a romantic finale.

As an added bonus, the CD includes classic nu-disco remixes by Carlos Hernandez and Lee Douglas, perfect for beach parties and late night sessions.

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