Bad Self Portraits
is eclectic Boston band
Lake Street Dive
's third studio album, and the group's sixth release overall. Produced by
Sam Kassirer
(
Josh Ritter
,
Erin McKeown
), the album comes two years after the group's covers EP,
Fun Machine
. Rather than revisit that album's neat gimmick of a jazz-soul band covering contemporary pop songs,
instead delve into a substantial batch of their own blue-eyed-soul and Southern rock-inflected originals. Once again, the album showcases lead singer
Rachel Price
's resonant, old-school singing, which is still the main reason to listen to
. Of course, with her band backing her at various times with harmony vocals, jazzy trumpet, crunchy tube guitar riffs, and woody jazz basslines, there's always something rootsy and unexpected happening around her on
. There is a buoyant creativity to many of
's arrangements, and cuts like "Bobby Tanqueray" and "Seventeen" reveal such time-tested influences as late-'60s Muscle Shoals-influenced soul and
Dusty Springfield-esque
pop. ~ Matt Collar