Sneaky Pete and The Secret Weapon - LiftOff; This is a reclusive genre-pushing album.

The band incorporates everything from post-punk to funk and then to jazzy lounge music in their genre-pushing sophomore album. Sneaky Pete and The Secret Weapons have returned with their second full length album ‘Liftoff’.

Needless to say, greatness is easy to spot and it’s right here on their amazing sophomore album.

The Quintet have balanced their Jazz, Ska, Hip-Hop and New Orleans influences with creative song structuring on their newest LP.

The band reflects on their mountaineering lifestyle with horn driven melodies and direct lyrics.

One look at the album opener would have you thinking that the LP is just an Instrumental album, that is; just an all-beat-no-vocals kind of song. ‘Clown Shoes’ is the first song on the EP and it brought back a lot of old memories… Somewhere along the line I was all meshed in the burgeoning bloom of the sound, the legendary late king of Afropop and alternative funk music; Fela, came to mind.

Things got askew a little bit faster when the second song in the album ‘Bad Bad Man’ came to play. That vocal and sizzling unhinged over the top delivery of funk and bravado brought by SP&SW is a thrill that can kill.

They have gained a reputation for their impressive live shows and high energy performances that have led to them sharing a stage with the likes of Trombone Shorty, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and The Revivalists amongst others.

Liftoff is a diverse body of work featuring the funky 5/4 jam “See You in 5” penned by drummer Philip Walker. The magic of the saxophone was felt most on ‘See Ya In 5’ although the sound started off with a slow beat, the transcending melodic sound of the saxophone was there to make up for the overly slow vibe of the song.

‘20 and Below’ is also in the same league with the previous track. Nothing really super spectacular can be pointed out from this track aside the effect of its calming power and the trumpet sounds played by Bobby Griffith and of course with Jack Tolan on the guitar as well.

Lift isn't gonna be complete without ‘Shell Life’ a perfect submersion of two sonorous voice doing a duet on a single song— this track is particularly tethered to a glorious past white life. The female vocalist on this particular track is just that amazing. She further coated rhe song with a sweet crispy coated candy with her distinctive voice.

It mostly seem like the arrangement of the song tracks is done in a way that have only non-vocal or long sound beat usher in the vocal part of the song. ‘I I like to dance’ is somewhat comical and the shortest song in terms of playtime. It ended too early for me.  The next song sets the tone with a wobbly synth ushering in a warehouse of sounds and voices over the next four minutes coupled with the trumpet sounds that was enchanting.

One of the most melodically-conscious and enthralling soul song in the album is ‘BAS’ it has this unique sound and soothing beat coupled with a simple but yet intrusive pitch of magical trumping. The ethos of the track is its celestial ability to transfix the listeners.

Traces of funk, punk, jazz, soul, and garage rock ars the genre of the 10 tracks that tears through the album like they were culled from a crate digger’s weekend score.

I'm summary, based on what i heard while listening to the tracks in Lift, the creativity of the band and their delivery I'm rating this whole album 4.8/5.

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