Album Review: The Seven Ups -- The Seven Ups

Instrumental music can be daunting for some listeners.

Vocals are the audience surrogate, the one part of the song any listener can have a crack at emulating, no matter how non-existent their own musical ability may be. Great instrumentals fill that vocal gap so well you barely notice they’re missing at all. This is an entire album of those kinds of great instrumentals – washed-out guitars, funked-up horns, constantly grooving percussion, even the odd salsa or flute. The Seven Ups have delivered the kind of infectious instrumental sound where vocals would only get in the way.