Herbert* – Scale

SCALE, Herbert's latest, skips much of the jazz-inflections of his previous album BODILY FUNCTIONS in favor for a surprising sound: a combination of big band and disco. "Something Isn't Right" is backed by some horns, but it's the strings that seem to speak loudest to the disco era. "The Movers and the Shakers" brings back the horns, accompanied by some soulful vocals and some electronic squiggles and off-kilter percussion (in case we forgot that this is a Herbert production, after all), but "Moving Like a Train" screams for strobelights and platform heels. Luckily, his crafty songwriting does much to surprise the listener who assumes he knows what he's in for -- the straightforward 4-to-the-floor of "Harmonize" or the smooth jazzy romanticism of "We're in Love" and "Those Feelings." "Down" has an almost operatic, classical feel to it, as if it's an excerpt from a ballet. And some of that filters into the start of "Movie Star," even as the track itself goes in a minimalist, tribal direction. "Just Once" mixes a quiet ambience with the yearning emotion of a torch song. And "Wrong" closes out the album with Herbert accompanied with only heartbreak and a piano, much like "The Last Beat" on BODILY FUNCTION. The songs here on SCALE weigh just as strongly as ever.