TORO Y MOI - Anything In Return

On Anything In Return, Chaz Bundick brushes aside the Stereolab- and Caribou-like qualities of Underneath The Pine, upping the boyish R&B-pop pastiche element that's been audible in his songs (if occasionally previously couched in compression/filtering) ever since his 2010 debut, Causers Of This.

"In the first three tracks alone, you can find hints of trance and house, R&B and funk, pop and rock. Later, "Studies" mixes a rhythm straight out of '90s-era hip-hop with a melodic structure that recalls pre-Hissing Fauna of Montreal. And "Grown Up Calls" is a fractured pop gem that recalls both Kanye West and WHY?. Bundick is an artist of synthesis, and his music operates best when the stitches don’t show, like on the sub-zero groove of "Say That" or sub-frequency flow of the appropriately liquid "Cola." It’s moments like these that are the most enjoyable, because they’re the songs that fully demonstrate Bundick’s complete skill set." - Consequence of Sound

"I promise not to keep bringing up Pharrell, but the way Bundick's built these elaborate tracks around his own decidedly unspectacular voice reminds me of the way Skateboard P interrupted Jay-Z's godly party-flow on "I Just Wanna Love U" so that he could bust out his terrible Curtis Mayfield impression and somehow sound badass doing it. (Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor is also a good comparison point here; there’s a level of suave/dweeby intersection at work that we mere mortals will probably never figure out.) Bundick’s voice shouldn’t work for these expertly-assembled pleasure-machine tracks, but it does, and the ballsiness of putting that voice front and center only makes the entire thing cooler." - Stereogum