Oh no! It’s me. Before I get started with my review, I’d like to start off by thanking Ken for letting me come back as a writer for S&S. Maybe it’s because I just got back from Germany with Chrome Corps and I’m riding a stage high, but here I am. It’s been a few dark years for me, but I finally feel ready to fully come back to the scene. Not just with my various projects, but as some piece of shit that has bad opinions.
When Ken had sent me a list of releases to cover, I was kind of confused as to why a release from 2022 was sent. I mean, that’s about the time that I had dropped off from the face of the Earth so maybe that was his way of saying I had some catching up to do. Bare with me cause I might be a tad rusty but here goes nothing. The lead in track “Too Many Boys” sets the entire mood for what’s coming in this LP, and that’s alot of fucking fun. It opens with a heart-throbbing kick and Perc-y bassline that reminds me of a very popular song from 2003, which I won’t say the name of. Reason being, I think there’s plenty of loving nods to 2000’s pop scattered through this album which I adore. Anyways, after you get hit with this gentle gated super saw melody, this jangly guitar leads you into the verse. It’s not quite a left turn, but it has the same feeling of missing a turn on your GPS. I’ll refer this as rerouting. Now this isn’t the kind of misdirection that makes you scream “FUCK” and punch your horn, It’s more of the feeling of “Ooooo we’re going on a little adventure today”. This album is FILLED with these types of reroutes and it certainly adds to the overall fun feeling of everything. Now, I did a little research into Caleb De Casper after my first listen and, come to find out, he’s a classically trained vocalist. That shines through on the huge choruses on each track and it rules.
Femme Boy | Caleb De Casper (bandcamp.com)
The second track, “Do You Feel” has an absolutely killer guitar throughout the track. It’s in a very flamenco style which is an immediate thumbs up from me. Victor Bustos and Jordan Good are credited for the guitar work, I’m not sure who does what tracks here, but their work throughout is really well done. In fact there’s not much on “Femme Boy” that isn’t well done. I peeped the linear notes to see if I recognized any names. After a little bit of digging, turns out I don’t know any of these fucking people and I love that. There’s something sort of mystic about reading a list of names that you’re unfamiliar with that all came together to make something really solid. It would be like if you asked “Who invented the Fire Extinguisher” and someone just picked a name out of a phone book. Although that’s a bad example because we all know the Fire Extinguisher was invented by Thomas Fire Extinguisher in 1854. It appears that everyone involved is somewhat local to the Austin scene. Even the producer Joe Stacey appears to stay pretty close to the Austin scene, working with Jack Charles and Pathetick.
Back to the music itself. “Real Girl” is very fun to blast in your car in heavy traffic. 10/10. Also there’s defiantly another nod to 2000’s pop in hear a la Missy Elliot and you can’t miss it. Another honorable mention for me is “Danny You’re A F*ckboy” (Real quick, if I can just get the uncensored title that would be great cause I have no fucking idea what that last word is.) The way Caleb wraps his voice around the backing chord changes is done super well. Also fuck Danny he sounds like he sucks, you deserve better. I also heavily recommend the track “Dreamer” featuring vocal accompaniment by Sabrina Ellis. The blippy bell melody was a very welcome surprise.
To wrap this up, I’ll say one thing. Check this out, do yourself a favor. While it is heavily pop, style-wise it covers plenty of ground and you can get some decent mileage out of this one. Also, I wasn’t sure where to drop this fact in there but, back in 2022 The city of Austin declared one day to be Caleb De Casper Day for all of his contributions to the LGBT culture in the city. Pretty sick. Also, the pictures below should set an industry standard on how merch is sold. Overall I give “Femme Boy” a 7 entire boys out of 10. It’s should also be noted that Caleb De Casper released a new single last month so check that out too.
