Good Mood Fool
One day it may be hard to explain, but in 2013 the \'80s are very much in style. Even indie-folk singer and Here We Go Magic leader Luke Temple has transformed his approach with cheesy synths, bouncy beats, and falsetto vocals that take the highlights of yacht rock, *Miami Vice*, and Billy Ocean and turn them into his drawing board. Said to have been recorded in a cabin in upstate New York with Dirty Projectors drummer Mike Johnson and Glass Ghost keyboardist Eliot Krimsky, *Good Mood Fool* features mellow textures that shouldn’t work as well as they do. Perhaps it’s because no matter how you mess with the arrangements—and they get seriously toyed with here—nothing stops a smart and funny songwriter from getting his twisted points across in songs as oddly captivating as “Katie” (a girl with “a mean body”) “Florida,” “Those Kids,\" and the metronome-fighting “Jessica Brown Findlay.” The silly Styx-Kansas vocal harmonies opening “Love Won’t Receive” might be too much for people who experienced the real thing.
Luke Temple's new solo album Good Mood Fool is more playful and less particular than anything Temple's done in years. Though frequently gorgeous, the album's everything-in-its-right-place presentations occasionally outshine the songs' underlying melodies.
Here We Go Magic’s main man enlists members of The Dirty Projectors and Glass Ghost for his latest solo effort.
Luke Temple’s songwriting template has followed a decidedly circuitous path throughout the late ’00s and early ’10s.
The muse is always right. This is something I firmly believe. Artists should follow that devilish sprite wherever it takes them