Obi Best - Capades

Genre electro-pop Publisher Social Science

Capades, the debut from Alex Lilly’s (usually found providing back up vocals for the Bird and the Bees) solo project Obi Best, is the type of album that we truly want to love.  Filled to the brim with quirky synth-pop, superficially reminiscent of Self (and any devotee of this genre who has not spent some quality time with Matt Mahaffey and company needs to make an immediate trip to their local well-stocked music store), Bitter:Sweet, etc.  Unfortunately, for some intangible reason, musical oddities that should provoke interest, instead tend to instill an overwhelming sense of boredom.  To make matters all the more bleak, the lyrics usually feel generic and bordering on acting as filler. 

A large portion of the boredom originates from the repetitive nature of the music.  For example, on opening track “Nothing Can Come Between Us” the same cycling keyboards replay ad nauseum over a rather trite set of lyrics.  This become all the more prevalent “Who Loves You Now.”  Through out the entire four and a half minute running time, we were able to identify one change in the beat, only to have the track drop directly back to its former metronome-like tempo.  From a technical standpoint, there is little to complain about, but the music does very little to move the listener. 

One bright spot on this album is Alex Lilly’s vocals.  While the lyrics maybe sub-par, she does possess a very pleasant voice.  As pure background noise this collection could almost work, but otherwise there just does not exist enough weight to this project to make it worthwhile.  Ultimately, it would seem that Alex Lilly’s talents are better suited to her regular gig with the Bird and the Bees.