Review: o F F Love – Probably Love
o F F Love – Probably Love (2012) [M=Maximal] // Grade: B+
Following in the footsteps of artists like How To Dress Well, Balam Acab, and even James Blake, o F F Love takes the familiar sounds of mid 90s and early 2000s R&B and twists them violently into another dimension, one of ethereal, haunted yearning, ghostly apparitions, opiated time signatures, and drum hits that are anything but romantic. The fact that this sound is now bordering on commonplace still, at times, leaves me happily dumbfounded. Thankfully, o F F is aware that, with the genre becoming more established, the initial “trick” if you will is no longer sufficient reason for interest.
In a theoretically simple but surprisingly effective variation, o F F very blatantly introduces the sounds of our favorite boy bands, which are clearly a massive touchstone for him. The differences, for better or worse, are the same ones that come between a song by The Backstreet Boys (or maybe Boyz II Men) and a song by Aaliyah. A goofy comparison at first, perhaps, and one that I’m sure almost everyone comes down definitely on one side of. But Max Martin’s work on Backstreet Boys songs is impeccable, and they had the dominating mass market appeal to prove it. On paper, they are both artists who make theatrical love songs with precise and choreographed production, but there is an artifice and innocence of delivery to a boy band that is singular and bizarre.
This artifice, which I find interesting enough in its natural state, is made even more interesting when presented in songs like “BE AROUND U” and “close to u , i’m not” that sound as malevolent as they do poppy. There are other, more spare and morose tracks like “i didn’t mean to” which are fine if not particularly exciting, and a out of place diversion into rap on “MAKEUPWORZ”. But for the most part, Probably Love is a rock solid look into the different places this still emerging form of R&B can go. Apparently when performing live, o F F has a habit of wandering into the audience and presenting girls with roses. This shows he’s a romantic, I suppose, but it also means he’s a showman, which might be just the thing he needs.
