Marrow – The Gold Standard [Album Stream]
Chance the Rapper is about to become a father, but he’s already a patriarch of sorts to a clan of young, hungry Chicago musicians. His overflowing presence on Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment’s recent album “Surf” helped propel that project to national attention and acclaim. That album featured rising Chicagoans like BJ the Chicago Kid and Joey Purp, as well as four musicians who now make up the band Marrow. Marrow’s influences are all over the map: its members have backgrounds in classical and jazz, as well as in the hip-hop outfit Kids These Days, which was emceed by Vic Mensa. Marrow crams all of these influences into its debut effort, “The Gold Standard,” which is ostensibly a rock album. It’s built around motifs that unfold deliberately, cycling through antic freak-out jams and washes of warm keyboard. The album recalls the intelligent folksiness of fellow Chicago band Wilco, as well as the breezy charm of Electric Light Orchestra. The instrumentation is largely uncluttered; the band’s technical virtuosity emerges in small bursts. Take a listen below.
“The Gold Standard” is out September 4 on Foxhall Records.