Chester French Review

By: Paul Lessane

Its hard to believe, before Chester French were signed to producer/artist Pharrell Williams’ Star Trek, they were students at Harvard spending all of their prestigious scholarly passions charming their egos with escapism in the form of a lottery ticket called the music demo. Duo D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey christen their creative efforts with the She Loves Everybody EP, a precursor to their upcoming album, Love The Future, due the first part of 2009.

It’s really hard to tell what compelled Williams to gamble on a pop/art act, because a majority of his success comes from being known as a hip-hop label…if you don’t think in terms of money, that is. Upon first listen, the lyric melody to flagship tune “She Loves Everybody” is not unlike the Men at Work classic, “Who Can It Be Now.” It’s a conscious rhetoric about taking advantage of an overzealous lover that starts with a brief cello interlude and leads into a humming bass. After a minute, the bridge of the keyboard stomp kicks in before a revelation of…well, I think that was a guitar. It’s a good song with a couple of decent remixes, among them one of which, of course, from Neptunes’ main man Pharrell Williams himself. The Neptunes remix is more of a factual dance-ridden synth romp, while the second remix, from Steve Aoki, is a little less occupied. His version is adorned with a consistent staccato keyboard that brings the rhythms to the fore and puts a stimulating echo on the lead vocal.

Track four, called “Wurlitzer Interlude,” is a naked keyboard number, a suitable comedown to all the madness. The second proper track off the EP is entitled “Jimmy Choos.” It’s a poppy number accompanied by a full band that entails a paranoid mockery about one man’s guilty pleasure of wasting time on an infatuated gold-digger. It’s also complemented by a mix from E-LP that’s on this moody prowl that breaks the vocal down by timing to make it sound important enough to be listened to.

It’s a delightful introduction to the world of Chester French, that’s for sure. One thing is for certain, though. There’s more to this world, and more to people, while you’re at it, which is why the biggest point of listening to Chester French is mute without knowing, so I’ll give you a hint: surfing the girl conundrum like they do, I find it somehow difficult to think that two guys with full-time pretentiousness this kitsch actually got into Harvard, which is, I guess, the irony of the fact that they ended up being musicians instead of, say, maybe a Grad student or a person with a real job somewhere. Even a volunteer would be nice. Something. But people are people and, well, this is America, so your guess is as good as mine. My advice is to skip the EP and wait until February for the album. The theme is cheap, but you can count on decent production, so it just might be worth a go. Until then, I guess.