Playing fast and loose with his samples, the Austin, Texas, producer seems to ask: Why stick to any one genre or era when you can submit to the decadence of pure vibes?
Mai tais, hippie speedballs, and landlocked exotica are but three of the many opulent visions that Fennec conjures on his latest LP, a couple of good days. “We want a few laughs, a few joints, and a few drinks among those we love,” wrote the Austin-based ex-lawyer-turned-DJ on his Bandcamp page, promising the soundtrack to “a couple of good days” to be enshrined in future reminiscences. You might thus expect the album to be weighed down by nostalgia. Mercifully, Fennec falls prey to no such regressive impulse: His bossa nova-driven, sample-drenched four-to-the-floor grooves impressively balance between languor and anticipation. Eschewing the self-seriousness that tends to pervade memory lane, good days flips J Dilla-esque samples over frothy beats, inducing a margarita haze in lieu of handkerchief-waving morosity. Why devoutly adhere to any one genre or era, the record seems to ask, when you can submit to the decadence of pure vibes?
Fennec’s previous records were never this much fun. His 2014 debut, Let Your Heart Break, suffered from Odesza-core milquetoastery. His last single, 2020’s “Finding Rest In a Weary World,” was impressive but relatively subdued, tinged with ambient melancholia even as the beat hit its stride. And while his previous LP, 2020’s free us of this feeling, fleshed out some of the elements that make good days such a joy to listen to, it never quite committed to them. The new album doubles down with the glorious, winking panache of a proud pornstache-haver. “Girl, don’t let it get you down,” the album opens, as a drum roll leads us into a thick, humid beat. On good days, the lyrics are all that lean generic; “girl” is a fittingly tongue-in-cheek introduction to an album that revels in a knowing sort of escapism, in the impermanent thrill of fun for fun’s sake.
Fennec’s bolder instrumental choices shine throughout, and while saxophones, pianos, strings, and woodwinds might seem more suited to a concert hall, good days luxuriates in making their presence known on the dancefloor. The richness of “fonzi”’s guitar makes the entire song, even as its beat throbs furiously. Album standout “a lil more conversation” includes a guitar solo so pronounced it’s almost absurd amid six-string twang, relentless percussion, and a Rhodes warbling for dear life above it all. Still, it’s this light-heartedness that carries the track; its energy never wanes, and even the vocal sample (“Let’s just wine, dine, and have a good time”) comes off more mischievous than corny. Even the shorter songs brim with delirium; the brief “partyhop”’s eponymous sample–“Let’s party hop!”—comes to life over one of the album’s crunchier basslines as it slides and sputters, before a fake-out ending at the 45-second mark. And let’s not forget the hi-hat triumph “honda with my bb,” good days’ equivalent of a slow jam, where the sheer ’90s-ness of the beat and angelic violins somehow wax romantic; the sampled “H-h-h-h-honda” sounds downright aching.
The album’s hazy cohesion admittedly hits a wall at points. The jaunty, clown-shoed bounce of “russian dressing” threatens to become unpleasantly cartoonish at a moment’s notice, and while the choral sample somewhat grounds the song, its juxtaposition against the rest of good days feels more like an acid trip gone south than a well-executed foray into a different style. “bnb” suffers the opposite problem by not taking nearly as many risks as the rest of the album does. While it’s perfectly nice, it isn’t very interesting, and by the time its six minutes are up, you just kind of wish “honda with my bb” had played a few more times instead.
All good things do come to an end, though, good vibes included, and Fennec makes sure to crank up the joy to its full potential before good days’ inevitable conclusion. “marijuanita” is so short yet so exultant that you almost start feeling a creeping dread, realizing how easily that forty-eight minute daze just slipped through your fingers. Whatever anxieties may arise, though, does it really matter when the music pulsates this hedonistically? Not really. Fennec’s a couple of good days is an album for ironic pool floats, silly straws in frozen beverages, squinting through aviators in Diazepam heat, enjoying the slow roast before the sunburn.
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