ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

The Funky Lowlives

[#] Somewhere Else is Here (2005)

Reviewed August 3, 2026

Enjoy the breeze. It doesn't stick around.

Singers can make the song. I'm going to sound like the biggest asshole hypocrite given that all I make is instrumental bleepy-grindy music, but a good singer (or at least vocal sample) isn't just distinctive, they can drive home the emotional core of a song in a way that instruments sometimes cannot. This fate befalls The Funky Lowlives' Somewhere Else is Here, a pretty obscure record I discovered through Pandora (my beloved) back in the early 2010s, and specifically its opener "Sail Into the Sun". This song perfectly contrasts its wandering, fingerstyle basslines and open-armed, swinging drum groove with this heavily-accented, weary monotone and the stickiest hook in all of chillout jazz. While the record does succeed despite said vocalist Ben Lord only showing up on two cuts, you just wish he was on more of it, y'dig?

On the greater scale, Somewhere Else is Here is well-assembled, grand, swirly, jazzy downtempo, summery in instrumentation if not necessarily in mood. The sonic palette includes everything from banjos tucked into the chorus of "For Her Eyes" to slowly-sinking Moog on "You Have to Come With Me", with bongos and horns and orchestras aplenty. It's a cool vibe, and these songs play well when they're on and may even occasionally stick with you. Where things truly resonate are on the vocal cuts, though. "Sun" and paired "Float Through Stars" give the breezy backing a third dimension through their lyrical dread, "Superlove" digs in and fuzzes up the proceedings with only three words, and "'Til I Left the Music" stretches out Marshmello's hook as if Fatboy Slim made comedown music. I definitely enjoy this one, but it's a good demonstration of the uphill battle instrumental music often faces in being memorable.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"Sail Into the Sun", "Superlove", "Float Through Stars"	"Here is Somewhere Else"	"Time to Let You Go"

NOFI | LOFI | HIFI