Molly Hanmer & The Midnight Tokers - Get Loose

Carpe Sonum
(MHMC102: 708527220115)

$11.40

Release Date: 06/3/22

Three years after their Americana-focused debut Stuck in a Daydream, Los Angeles band Molly Hanmer & The Midnight Tokers steps up the funk and the feeling with their sophomore LP, Get Loose. Building on the heady mix of folk, blues, and psychedelia that marked their first album, Hanmer and company opt for a scorching blues-rock sound that aims to shake the doldrums from listeners’ lives and respond to the societal upheaval that has marked the COVID era.

Frontwoman Hanmer has always defined herself against the spectacle of modern music, preferring to take on a more earthy, authentic persona. She’s played guitar since the precocious age of 8, and has recruited a group of fellow musical veterans for Get Loose including Grammy-winning producer and engineer Sheldon Gomberg, who returns after his work on Daydream.

Together with co-writer and musical partner Claudia Miles, Hanmer and the Midnight Tokers have crafted a no-holds-barred collection of 10 songs that draws from the past while speaking to the present. Title track “Get Loose” demands the most attention. It’s a soulful, groovy salvo of bluesy vibrations which Grimy Goods calls “a reminder…to open our hearts and minds, to break the so-called rules.” “Hard Day’s Work” speaks to the dispiriting nature of earning one’s daily bread, while Creedence Clearwater Revival cover “Born on the Bayou” injects some appreciation for the rock gods of old.

Tracks

Gunman
Born on the Bayou
I Just Wanna Love You
Bet You Think You’re Cool
Sick fo Me
Get Loose
Hard Day’s Work
Blah Blah Blah
Rise
Boil it Down