Project RnL feat. Pomplamoose – ‘Expiration Date’ [Review]
Although I’m a huge fan of Project RnL, and TMMP is all about negating musical boundaries, my first reaction to Expiration Date was something along the lines of “Just what the hell is this?!”
On first listen, Expiration Date felt like Project RnL’s least accessible cover so far. The Pomplamoose original (viewable below) contained plenty of quirkiness, but Project RnL have really gone to town on it, cramming it with all the none-more-warped grooves and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them runs they could without losing the song underneath altogether. This is pretty dangerous territory taste-wise, and it takes a hell of a team to pull it off without falling off the tightrope and being pitched fingers-first into the dreaded Wanker Pit.
The good news is that Project RnL (assisted in style by original Expiration Date songwriters Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn) are a hell of a team – and for me, hearing something that I just don’t understand at first is often an indication that if I’m willing to put the time in, my listening efforts will be rewarded with a new favourite tune. In an age of internet-enabled instant gratification, the temptation is always there to skip the difficult-to-comprehend stuff and quickly click away to something new – but instead, I stuck with this song. On the second listen, all those blistering notes started to make more sense – and on the third time around, I finally got it.
In exchange for almost fifteen minutes of listening time, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this track – and with my comfort zone having been stretched that little bit further, I’ll be more likely to be drawn in instantly by intensely left-field tunes in the future. For me, that’s the real payoff; after all, a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
Links / Video
Project RnL on Facebook and YouTube.
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