Review: Soapstarter's "I Like It Till You Do" - A Psychedelic Summer Soundtrack

Does the name François De Meyer ring a bell? For more than twenty years he has acted as a centipede who mainly performs musical work under the radar. With periods living in London and New York, De Meyer can best be described as a citizen of the world who you may know from Vive La Fête or Disko Drunkards, two bands with which he has played. We’re only putting two forward to save you a lot of scrolling through a huge laundry list of projects.

Or we’ll give you a third with Soapstarter: in 2007 De Meyer single-handedly launched the band with a one-off album Naked Wheelz. It was received positively, but the group did not gain much fame. Thirteen years later, the frontman felt it was time to get his gun out again for a new starting shot and a new EP. Now lies with I Like It Till You Do also a new album ready. A soaring collection of songs where comparisons with Tame Impala or Maribou State will never be far away.

The cover of the record goes hand in hand with the first track “Fifty Fifty”: what we think we’re going to hear when we see the cover, we get to hear. It is a psychedelic, largely instrumental opener that could have been written by Kevin Parker. Moreover, the song would not look out of place in the playlist of the well-known, eternally studying LoFi girl on YouTube that has already dragged several students through exam periods. The main reason for this is a mysterious dialogue between a man and woman that fits perfectly into the picture. We are transported from YouTube to a tropical beach during the first song itself by the addition of acoustic guitars. Talk about a wonderful opener.

The general further sound of the album is certainly not student music: the quintet from Soapstarter is a bit too talented for that. Rather, we stay on the tropical beach from earlier with horns, harmonicas or rock guitars. “And There It Was” is a fairly chaotic second track that is difficult to label. Due to an almost perfect opener, it is less maskable that the song comes across as sloppy the more it progresses. Still, it’s a lot of sitting back and enjoying the album. Just when we had almost sunburned our beach chairs, Soapstarter decides it’s time to get our dancing legs loose with the delicious “Elastic”. The surprising dance party seems to continue at first with our feet in the sand, but for the last two minutes we easily transport to a Cuban club. It is a wonderful summer house number and therefore without a doubt one of our favorites from the record.

“Summer Snob” is a chosen hit: with a nice bass line and a clear chorus, the song builds up to a kaleidoscopic outro in which we dream away to places where we will never go. However, during “Towers” the band again comes across as quite messy. There are just too many layers in the song that don’t seem to be properly arranged. At five minutes and 36 seconds, “Towers” isn’t even the longest song on the record: Soapstarter is clearly not afraid to make long songs. On “Swamm” and the aforementioned “Elastic” they also prove that this swagger is justified. During “Time”, the last of the album, we can say a psychedelic goodbye to the mysterious duo from the beginning.

With a playing time of just under fifty minutes, we recommend Soapstarter to sell the record with a tube of sun cream. Although it comes across as a bit messy here and there, we predict that it is an album that every music and holiday lover will enjoy. In any case, we are already looking forward to more from the band and hope not to have to wait another sixteen years for a new long player. The future looks bright for Soapstarter and with I Like It Till You Do we already have the soundtrack for a successful summer.

Soapstarter is going to transfer its summer vibes tonight The Snuffel in BrugesIn other words, being impulsive is the message.

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