Superfood’s second outing Bambino is a calm departure from their debut back in 2014. Bambino offers new sounds from the band but with the same recognisable writing style of 2014’s Don’t Say That. The band have shed the angst and have arrived at a more blissful place. Arguably the strongest band to come out of the fatuous “B-Town” boom from a few years back, Superfood are now reinvigorated and we’re very happy to have them back.

Imagine that Superfood have hit the reset button and now want to reintroduce themselves. With Bambino, Superfood present themselves as a two-piece comprising Dom Ganderton and Ryan Malcolm, both of whom were songwriters in the original line-up. The duo have stated that they weren’t satisfied with the band’s debut and felt it was very rushed. They’ve made it very clear that Bambino is the album they really wanted to make and Superfood is now the band they want to be in.

Bambino is cool, calm, tanned and relaxed, there’s a confidence to the music. Superfood have gone off on their own tangent and they sound very sure of themselves. Bambino is mellow and joyous and it still retains some of the original Superfood DNA in there. The song structures and choruses are very recognizable and there is still some of that Superfood twang in there, it’s just presented in a new way this time around. They do indulge in the occasional outing of spiky guitars on tracks like ‘Need A Little Spider’ which is a nice gentle nod to the band’s roots. With the guitar indie band dreams removed Bambino focuses much more on beats and rhythm and relies heavily on sampling.

The sampling on Bambino is really very clever. There’s times when it’s fully expected and at the forefront of the songs. I really think it’s the subtler uses of it that work best though. There are times when it’ll hide just beneath Dom’s vocal so when he hits the chorus notes the vocal is hugely elevated. On the chorus of ‘I Can’t See’ you can hear this use in full effect. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything under the vocal until Dom hits the “see” and it makes the chorus sound euphoric. There are many moments like this dotted throughout Bambino.

‘I Can’t See’ and ‘Unstoppable’ both have an unmistakable tinge of ska to them – which sounds like a total clash of styles, however, Superfood do genuinely make it work within their sound. Bambino offers a mixed bag of sounds, sometimes it hits and other times it’ll simply pass you by. What you do get from Bambino is a very pleasant and enjoyable listen. It’s a record that sounds very soft, it’s a record to wander the streets to and to soak up your surroundings.

Due to the record’s very relaxed nature it, doesn’t seek to grab you and you can fade in and out when listening easily. ‘Shadow’ is an example of a great track that had simply gone straight over my head when listening the first few times. I think this falls down to the interludes on the album which, for me, break it up a little too much.

Bambino is certainly a very good reintroduction to Superfood. It can be difficult to remove the ideas of Don’t Say That when listening, but that’s because I enjoyed their original debut. There are little glimmers throughout the album, for example on ‘Witness’, which is a reminder of the original Superfood and, for me, these are the best moments.

Bambino is a rebirth for Superfood, this time on the terms of two founding members. They’ve not thrown the baby out with the bathwater and have retained many of stylistic reminders of the original band. The record doesn’t grab you by the throat, maybe it’s a little too mellow for some. It’s great to see the guys experimenting with new styles and clearly enjoying their new incarnation.

Chris Middleton

Website: superfoodjunk.com
Facebook: facebook.com/superfoodjunk
Twitter: twitter.com/superfoodjunk