Toro Y Moi - "Boo Boo"

Toro Y Moi, aka Chaz Bundick, since the early 2010's has been a staple of modern electronic music.  His 2010 debut caught me off guard at the peak of the Ill-Fated Chillwave movement.  "Causers Of This" was similar to albums from the likes of Com Truise, Washed Out, and Neon Indian.  But it was the chilly, glistening synths and Chaz's sweet vocals that really made this album stick out to me as a seriously great listen.  On his 2011 album "Underneath The Pine", Toro Y Moi dropped the whole Low-Fi Chillwave gimmick in exchange for a more glitzier dance sound.  The very dreamy atmosphere remained though, which ended up giving Chaz a wonderfully distinct sound.  Up next Toro Y Moi released "Anything In Return", which took a whole lot of the same sound from his "Underneath The Pine" album.  To an extent, it was alright, and "Say That" was quite the single.  But overall I feel like Chaz needed to switch things up. And he most certainly did in 2015 with "What For?".  This album showed Toro Y Moi going down a much lighter, Indie Pop oriented road.  And while a few of the tracks were sloppy, this album was filled with wonderfully sweet and catchy tracks like "Empty Nesters" and "Buffalo".  So that all being said, I really never know what to expect when it comes to Toro Y Moi.  Chaz is back after two years, with a much more glistening sound in these opening singles, so let's talk about the rest of this.

(One of my favorite older Toro Y Moi tracks)

    This album starts off with “Mirage”, and from the sound of this, this is seriously some of the haziest and chilled out stuff we’ve heard from Chaz in a VERY long time.  I love some of the intro vocals, giving this almost a sort of sleazy vibe that’s enhanced so much by just how funky and glistening this is.  There’s a very old school, 80’s funk feel to this.  But while it’s certainly retro, it also has a very modern feel to this, maybe even a little futuristic, making for a surprisingly timeless sounding track.  Chaz’s vocals follow in the same, more pop-oriented direction that they did on “What For?”, and overall this is just a really good intro to Chaz’s shift in style.  It’s very hazily produced once again, this is easily the dreamiest Chaz has been since “Causers Of This”.  But the big story on “Mirage” continues to be the shift in genre.  At the end of the day, this is basically an Alternative R&B feel.  If that’s the case, I’m so up for more of this in the future.  I don’t think this track really needed to be over 5 minutes long.  But between the funky vibe and Chaz’s great ad-libs, this is impressive.  The very cool vibe to this album continues with “No Show”.  I love the more 80’s synths brought in here, as well as some of these sweet opening vocal harmonies.  Once again, I feel like in a way Chaz is going big time back to his roots, to his very early Chillwave days.  He is, however, bringing in a whole lot more of soulful hooks.  The atmosphere is what really drives this one home however.  I love the heavy cloudiness to this as well as some of the dreamy vocal effects on Chaz’s vocals.  While I do think that Chaz did well with his recent venture into Pop, as well as his attempt at a mixtape with “Samantha”, I feel like this is just so hard to say no to.  Plus, Chaz is playing the slower paced game wonderfully and is really coming off with some very sleazy and sexy vibes.  “Mona Lisa” however is an interesting piece that shows that Chaz obviously still has a little dance influence in him.  But this track comes off just as cool, like a very old school 80’s synth pop hidden gem.  His vocals even have a serious smokiness to them, and I don’ think I’ve ever heard Chaz this confident.  A whole lot of this album actually oozes with confidence, and the result is actually really awesome.  “Mona Lisa” is catchy, and has some serious grooves.  But I do feel like while I’m loving this, there’s going to be quite a few people that quite frankly don't understand this one or this whole album.  To some, this album is going to come off as a huge step back for Chaz.  But for me, this is the funky, chilled out, Alternative R&B project that I’ve been dying to hear for from Chaz.  Even that very spacious, ambient, pulsating instrumental ending is really nice.  As this album rolls into “Pavement”, things get strangely intense with those rumblings underneath.  Going into this album, I know Chaz was influenced by Oneohtrix Point Never, and that’s where this influence seriously shines. Now, as a whole, I feel like there really weren’t a lot of tracks that didn’t work out in Chaz’s favor.  But “Pavement” does underwhelm me sadly.  I think it’s ok, as an instrumental, but this easily could have been dreamier.  When those vocal snippets come in followed by Chaz’s short passage, I do end up loving those moments.  But overall, this track is just too much of an afterthought.      

    Thankfully, Chaz really bounces back quickly with “Don’t Try”, which is easily one of the more claustrophobic and seriously intense tracks I’ve ever heard Chaz touch.  These synths are pounding, and Chaz’s focus continues to be 100% in the atmosphere.  I can’t stress this enough however, if the cloudier and dreamier sounds of Toro Y Moi don’t mesh well with you, this album is going to be a tough listen for you.  But for me, I love it.  I seriously LOVE Chaz’s mort sultry and deeper delivery on “Don’t Try”.  It’s not something we’re really used to hearing from him, there’s almost even a Miguel vibe on this one.  Not to mention this track just gets more and more intense as it pounds on.  Chaz seriously outdid himself.  I feel like every track here just has this thick glistening synth veil over it, and that certainly goes for the next track “Windows”.  I love the funky drums here and the serious grooves as well.  And while I’m not the biggest fan of autotune, it really works wonderfully for Chaz here and makes this much sleeker and sexier.  “Boo Boo” continues to be easily the most confident release we’ve ever heard from Toro Y Moi.  I love how busy “Windows” is, between all of the vocal layers which include some of Chaz’s higher pitched vocals that I really didn’t realize I missed.  However, I can’t seem to get over just how great Chaz sounds with this Alternative R&B sound.  He’s only picked this sound up recently, but he’s already doing it so much more justice than some working with this for years.  As this album goes on and on, it get’s more and more of an undeniable throwback, but with Toro Y Moi’s signature very dreary and hazy atmosphere.  Altogether, it mostly comes off very surreal sounding and very tasteful. “Embarcadero” is up next, and instantly this beat just works so well for Chaz’s vocals.  It’s a slow track, but it’s also really sexy and very epicene feel as each instrumental breezes by.  The drums are huge, the synths are funky, and overall this is some seriously great stuff.  Now to be honest, just from hearing “Girl Like You” I knew I was going to go nuts for this album.  I love the very sleek, dreamy vibes coming off of this track and the way it seriously sounds like a unearthed 80’s gem.  Chaz’s confidence continues to seriously shine bright because if we’re being honest this track is VERY steamy and sexy.  Chaz’s performance on these tunes is just so undeniably cool, I almost feel like he took a trip in that transformation chamber that used to transform Steve Urkel into his very cool alter ego on “Family Matters”.  I don’t have a single bad thing to say about “Girl Like You”, and man is it ever catchy.  

Rating: 8.2/10

Give A Listen To:  "No Show", "Mona Lisa", "Window", "Girl Like You"

Overall Thoughts:  I mean, overall this is probably my favorite thing Toro Y Moi has done in a VERY long time.  I'm a fan of Chaz when he's at his dreamiest and haziest, and that's what you're going to get here.  But more than that, you're going to see Chaz Bundick at his most up front and personal with his fan base.  He oozes so much more confidence on "Boo Boo", and it's quite frankly really exciting, and I can't wait to see what he does next.