“Love, Care, Kindness & Hope” is the best of Everything

The fifth (sixth if you include the remix version of 2018’s Long Way Home) album from Quebec deep houser Fred Everything is another smooth, accomplished and musically rich collection of deep house, broken beat and downtempo electronica, featuring guest appearances from James Alexander Bright, Stereo MCs, DJ/producer Sapele and long-time collaborator, vocalist Robert Owens. Although the feel here is generally light there’s also an overall slight air of melancholy to the chords and melodies, perhaps a reflection of the album’s genesis during a two week period of pandemic isolation.

Love, Care, Kindness & Hope is mostly made up of the same kind of slick, burnished house music his label Lazy Days specialises in, with the welcome jazz-funk-flavoured addition of live string, horn and flute parts on several of the tracks, most of which come in between four and five minutes long, none overstaying their welcome. Fred Everything’s a producer aware to the particular needs of the house music album listening experience, always a delicate balance with a genre that is if not defined by, is certainly in love with the joys of the repetitive loop. Here, it’s all about light-touch, funky key riffs, bubbling square wave basses, thick creamy synth pads and supa-tight house or broken beat rhythms forming the basis for dreamy, drifty vocals and live touches of jazzy horns, the brass working particularly well at elevating tracks like “Something For You” and the Owens’ featuring “Never.”

A refined collection from Fred Everything, Love, Care, Kindness & Hope sounds like the best of Lazy Days Recordings distilled down to a single album.

⚪️ Love, Care, Kindness & Hope Tracklisting

Fred Everything: Love, Care, Kindness & Hope LP (Lazy Days / May 2024 / 12" vinyl + digital)
1. Hope Is On The Horizon (03:19)
2. Fred Everything & Sapele - A Long Time Coming (04:21)
3. Evening Ghost (04:55)
4. Fred Everything & Robert Owens - Never (05:23)
5. Something For You (05:01)
6. Moonrise (04:20)
7. Fred Everything & Stereo MC's - Soul Love (04:57)
8. Fred Everything & James Alexander Bright - Breathe (05:15)
9. Asolee (05:17)
10. A Good Day (04:01)

⚪️ Disclosure Statement

This record was submitted as a promo.

⚪️ Previous Coverage

⚪️   Cover Story: Fred Everything: Everything Is Everything (2018)
⚪️   New Music: Fred Everything & Atjazz team up for “Cosmos” (2021)
⚪️   News: The Wonderful Karl The Voice Has Passed Away (2024)
⚪️   New Music: Jimpster Remixes “Leave Me Here” from Martin Iveson & Lazy Days (2017)
⚪️   Features: Fred Everything Interview (2008)

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5 Mag Issue 212
Out April 2024

BELOVED: This was originally published in 5 Mag Issue #212 featuring an oral history of Freerange, DJ Paulette, Black Sjuan, Elbert Phillips, Dark Heaven and more. Become a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right away!

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