The Singles Bar: Poppa’s Kitchen unpack island fair with ‘Going Home’
The California pop duo run away from their problems on a new island jam.
Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.
Learning to march to the beat of your own drum is an act of hypnotic liberation. It often comes with age, and as life’s dial ticks in calculated increments like a kitchen timer, you come to realize outside forces and perceptions are inconsequential to your own self-worth. California pop duo Poppa’s Kitchen, comprised of musicians and songwriters Steve Feldman and Bob Romanus, harness that ideal into a staunch framework of beauty island blues and Americana music. “Going Home,” which is as breezy as Jimmy Buffett and Brian Wilson, sandy and lo-fi in texture with a shimmering polish, fits comfortably in the electric guitar’s sly snarl with a chomping bite of percussion.
The clangs of tambourine and unruly chatter ignite the first stanza into a robust but nonchalant oceanside extravaganza. Starchy reggae comes up to meet the earthy folk smack dab in the middle, allowing the song to go down smooth and rich. “Every time I try to move, you know my back begins to hurt,” the pair, who both draw on such influences as Johnny Cash and Paul Simon, bob on the opening image and slide into their well-culled “wit and whimsy,” as they call their sonic and lyrical blends. “I thought things were going bad, and suddenly, they’re getting worse / These are just the cold hard facts / I’m not complaining / I don’t need a weatherman to tell me that it’s raining…”
“Going Home,” a euphoric tropical getaway, kicks open the barn door of their brand new record, Time Well Spent, out now as an independent release.
Listen below:
