Album Review: Free Time - Free Time

Responsible parties considered, the debut self-titled album from Melbourne-via-New York four-piece Free Time sounds exactly as you'd expect it to. Fronted by Dion Nania (formerly of Panel Of Judges and a fill-in bassist for Twerps for an extended duration), the outfit consists of Real Estate guitarist Jonah Maurer and former Scott & Charlene's Wedding member Michael Mimoun on drums. What we have here is the perfect recipe for yet another summery lo-fi bedroom-pop record – and that's exactly what this is, but with a fortunate twist. Free Time have somehow managed to prevent this record from sounding completely derivative and put together all their soft-pop knowhow to create a gorgeously warm record of their own conception.

This is an album focused entirely on subtlety, which – given the slacker pop exterior – is somewhat of an oxymoron. Were it not for the carefully tweaked guitar parts, there would be a pretty serious lack of variety. It's often hard to decipher when one song ends and when another begins, though with that being said, at no point do things ever become dull. I Lost Again opens the album with the kind of hazy hard-to-place nostalgia that fills the remainder of the album, and from that point on each track is merged together with a lazy, stock-standard drumbeat, set apart only by the sneakiest elements found in the psyched-out keys embedded into Here And There and the erratic fuzzed-out guitar solo of Nature's Cup.

Free Time offers very few surprises, but this is definitely an instance where that old saying “less is more” rings true.