Art Thief | Tough Crowd
(Independent)
It is funny that a band establishing their own eclectic sound should be named Art Thief. The Newburgh-birthed project is full of Newburgh bassist Sam Smith’s impressive mastery of prog, fusion, and other genres aplenty, anchoring the group’s explorations into startlingly pop-song length compositions. The lyrics sometimes can come off a bit wake-and-bake, college-jam band-ish, like on “Weed is Tight” or a song about a snail delivering the mail, but who said every song in the world had to be serious? Tough Crowd is a terrific album (and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Alan Douches, FYI). Fair To Midland, Muse, and Four Stroke Baron come to mind as recent groups who’ve painted wide-stroke sonic pictures, and Art Thief sits in that tradition. The laconic, summery jazz-hop beat of “Instagram Song” pairs with breezy keys and spare hypnotic flute before a flourish of rhythmic impossibilities. This fun group is likely killer live, if they can recreate any of this.
