The Chester French Blog

Review written by Kevin Jones:

“Even without the backing of trendsetting music celebs like Kanye and Pharrell Williams, Chester French members and Harvard alumni D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummery were clearly destined for big things. Their debut long-player, Love The Future, is a multi-stylistic patchwork of sounds and rhythms in which an accessible, old-meets-new pop rock base serves as a launching pad for a slew of sonic themes that are anything but. Dramatic string elements feature heavily in their wide-ranging creations, adding oodles of emotive weight alongside the character-rich organ turns of the sweeping floor-stomper “Bebe Buell” and the equally rambunctious “The Jimmy Choos.” Poppy ’60s soul earns a nod on the brief “Time To Unwind” before things erupt into the quirky show tune theatrics of “Fingers” then fall off into the quizzically minimalist, Barrett-era, Floyd-ian musings of “Country Interlude.” Through it all, Chester French strike a fine balance between plainly digestible musicality and a level of expansive experimentation that continues to reward with each successive spin. (Star Trak)”

Check out Hip Hop DX’s 4 Star Review of our debut album, “Love the Future”:

For an artist, the key to maintaining one’s own identity is to steer clear of drawing inspiration from like-sounding artists. Years back, Method Man [click to read] would listen to Miles Davis when he recorded, and ironically Fiona Apple would listen to Method Man (the whole Wu-Tang Clan in fact). As Hip Hop artists broaden their horizons in sound and style, the music they draw inspiration from starts to veer further and further from Rap. Years from now, DXnext artists Chester French [click to read] will be the group they still play in the studio.

When Harvard grads D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey formed Chester French, the heavy Pharrell [click to read] cosign would suggest that their music would hold some degree of an “urban” tinge. Thankfully their debut album Love the Future includes none of that, besides a Star Trak label. Here is a group adored by Hip Hop heads, simply by being themselves – messy haired white boys in khakis and oxford shirts crafting Rock reminiscent of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Love the Future is an amalgam of sounds that closely resemble that era of Rock that we only heard about but never fully experienced live. It’s that Almost Famous Rock when Rolling Stone was on its A-game mixed with the British invasion. It’s the Beach Boys back when they were at war with The Beatles, plus a touch of the 1910 Fruitgum Company It’s drenched in Rock, yet there’s an underlying Soul to it.

The first singles heard from Chester French, “She Loves Everybody” and “The Jimmy Choos” were decent indicators that this group loved by Rap was not comprised of rappers. “She Loves Everybody” takes haunting strings and vocals that later emerge into a synthy Rock party, while “The Jimmy Choos” bring the guitars and drums into unified basslines, enough for any Hip-Hop fan to nod his head like he’s jocking Jay-Z.

Lyrically, Chester French insert straight-laced humor into songs about love and not getting enough of it, but still romancing with lines like “this ain’t groupie love ‘cause you mean so much to me/You’re my Bebe Ruell, you’re my Puerto Rican Pamela Lee” on the snappy “Bebe Ruell” or the dark Johnny Cash-ish “Beneath the Veil”. There are no real low points on Love the Future, with even the interludes sounding like viable album cuts.

Chester French isn’t the first group to sample days past. We hear it everyday in Hip Hop, and in Indie Rock groups like Vampire Weekend, the Kooks, and the Klaxons. The difference is in CF’s approach, and while anyone’s Rock-loving parents might mistakenly call Chester French biters, we can call them the reason why a Soulja Boy fan might pick up a Beatles CD someday.

-DA & Max

This is one of our favorite reviews of the album yet. Make sure to check it out and leave a comment on the post on Vibe!

Chester French: “Love the Future”
Maiya Norton

Harvard’s finest ace their first test

While most students were cramming in the library, Maxwell Drummey and D.A. Wallach were hustling to finish their demo in a Harvard University dorm.  Bored with the music on the radio, Chester French tapped influences as wide-ranging as The Beatles and OutKast to formulate a uniquely original sound. In 2007, their retro, yet modern, mash-up caught the attention of Pharrell Williams, who beamed the college seniors up to his Star Trak label after a tug-of-war with Jermaine Dupri. Two years later, the Massachusetts pair’s debut, Love the Future, hits and is aimed directly at the girls in Jimmy Choos.

Chester French are like the kids who blend in with every clique in school. They float easily between pop, indie rock, and hip hop, earning some street cred with their recent mixtape, Jacques Jams, Vol. 1: Get Familiar with Chester French, which featured Common, N.O.R.E., and Clipse, while poaching N.E.R.D rock fans with new wave-y lead single, “She Loves Everybody.” But while they’ve triangulated the market and earned their rap bona fides, Love the Future is ultimately an homage to ’60s pop, full of heartache and break, but little hip hop swagger.

Many of the songs here were penned during Chester French’s tenure at school. They’ve tweaked the lyrics and refined their production techniques, and it shows on songs like “C’Mon (On My Own),” a mixture of swelling strings, snares, and guitar riffs. At times, Wallach’s crisp vocals recall The Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson, as he echoes over the upbeat “Time To Unwind” and “Not Over You.” Known for their playful charm, Chester French gets serious on the piano-heavy “Fingers,” where Wallach softly coos in a simple, unguarded falsetto, “And the fingers of your mind have wrapped around my spine, and made me feel so blind.” Multi-instrumentalist Maxwell shines on the interludes when his curly-haired-counterpart steps aside and the focus shifts to intricate musical arrangements and dramatic violins.

Chester French have deftly balanced the thrills of newness with the reliability of the old—not bad a for a couple of graduates.

Go to Vibe and drop a comment NOW!

-DA & Max