CONFIDENCE MAN

CONFIDENT MUSIC

FOR

CONFIDENT PEOPLE

Well, “a ring a ding ding boy” it’s official, Confidence Man have all our party bangers sorted for the foreseeable future, seriously. Their highly anticipated debut ‘Confident Music for Confident People’ is brimming with dance anthems that are sure to be heard at every hoedown around. The flamboyantly named, Janet Planet, Sugar Bones, Reggie Goodchild and Clarence McGuffie of Brisbane’s new dance-pop supergroup have not shied away from the glorious retro synthesisers, raving 90’s dance percussion, pentatonic riffy goodness, tantalising melodic hooks, memorable and relatable lyrics, and well-seasoned pinches of nostalgia, sass, wit, self-deprecation and satire.

  When I first heard Confidence Man back in early 2017 I was immediately intrigued by their indie come dance-pop sound and aesthetic. I vividly remember embarking on an Alice In Wonderland-esque decent down the YouTube rabbit hole starting with ‘Confidence Man live’ and ending somewhere near the ‘Australia doesn’t really exist’ conspiracy theory. During the journey I watched all the videos I could find of them performing live (Splendour In The Grass, Golden Plains, BIGSOUND) and also their mesmerisingly dorky choreographed music videos; well worth a watch. Even through a thirteen inch screen and tinny laptop speakers their colossal sound, contagious groove and enigmatic stage presence is all consuming, stimulating, empowering and motivating; to do what? I’m not sure, anything really, that’s the pure confidence Confidence Man exude. For a little over a year we have waited eagerly for their debut album and it does not disappoint, ‘Confident Music For Confident People’, from start to finish, captures the bands live energy, aesthetic and vibe naturally and perfectly, the way a good record should.  

  The opening lyrics - “I must confess / I’ve been sleeping with your ex coz I heard he was the best / I must confess / I never would have guessed he would get so obsessed / I’m not surprised / I’m popular with all the guys / Oh how they try / I have to walk around town in a disguise / Try your luck with me” – set the tone and direction of the record from the get go and for the next forty minutes the listener is taken on a hyper-confidence building dance trance adventure full of driving beats, repetitious bass and synth riffs, wild stories of parties involving lightbulbs going places they shouldn’t and many a singalong chorus until they reach the final lyric, an optimistic realisation and beautiful resolution – “There’s a whole world out there / A world full of colour and sound and true love / It’s astounding / It’s astonishing / It’s a world full of love and you and I.”

  Although the eleven tracks on the album work together well, flowing smoothly as if to create one evolving night out on the town, there are three standout tracks: ‘Better Sit Down Boy’, ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ and ‘Out The Window’. They’re like the peaks in the night when you hit the sweet spot just before it all falls apart and you end up waking up to a $180 Uber cleaning fee, a cracked phone screen and an overdrawn bank account. ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ is the kind of track that gets you geared up for a big night, ‘Better Sit Down Boy’ is about 1:00am when everything is going marvellously and you’re having a decent boog, ‘Out The Window’ is that point around 5:30am when the sun is rising and you’re sitting around a fire-pit at the edge of a bush-doof talking completely smack with someone you went to high-school with and haven’t seen in five years.

  ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ both subtly and overtly at times pays homage to nostalgic dance anthems of the past, drawing influence from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Aqua and Right Said Fred. The track, ‘C.O.O.L Party’, details the party of the year with semi-sarcastic lyrics like, “It’s the party of the year and I know because I’ve been to heaps of parties / I’ve been to costume parties / No costume parties / Day parties / Full moon parties / I even went to a party where guy shoved a lightbulb up his arse.” In the chorus lyric a clever nod to Aqua’s 1997 banger ‘Barbie Girl’ can be heard, “C O O L / cool / I’m a cool party girl in a cool party world.”  Whilst in ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ one can decipher a homage to Right Said Fred’s 1991 famous, or be it infamous, hit ‘I’m Too Sexy’ with the baritone Sprechgesang vocals, satirical charisma, the beat and bass, and one-liners like, “and the girls / Oh the girls they love me / Because they know / Yeah they all know / They know I'm in a band.” The final track on the album , ‘Fascination’, rhythmically, harmonically, and lyrically pays homage to ‘Sympathy For The Devil, a Rolling Stones classic, a true original samba-rock track from the 1960s. Drawing upon a similar chord progression, percussion loop and subtle lyrical hint with the line, “pleased to meet you”, Confidence Man skilfully rework the classic tune into an original and authentic sounding piece whilst retaining enough traces of the Stones to allow the listener to discover the inspiration.

If ‘Confident Music For Confident People' doesn’t get you up and dancing whilst simultaneously building your confidence I don’t know what will. The album sounds polished and is well written, thought-out, and pieced together; it really is a brilliant effort at a debut record. You can catch Confidence Man live - which I’d highly recommend – touring with Groovin’ The Moo in late April and on their Confident Music For Confident People Australian tour starting in May.

Key Tracks:

Better Sit Down Boy, Try Your Luck, Don’t You Know I’m In A Band, Bubblegum, Out The Window.