Looking back, Totorro, aka one of if not the most prestigious French math rock bands to ever do it, had been lightly teasing a return for a while. It didn’t feel much like a secret, but it was just one of those freak observer effect things where the second you lay eyes on it, it changes, or makes you feel like it was in your head the whole time.
2022’s Et si l’amour c’était aimer ? indeed saw half the band back together, but was it official? No one knew. But then “Bernard Guez” dropped back in July, making it all but official. At the time, we still didn’t know if it was just a single, an EP, or even part of an LP. “New Music,” the second single with the greatest, most frustrating song title ever, only further confounded us. Luckily, whatever was going on, it was new Totorro.
Now that Sofa So Good is out in it’s final form, it actually feels like the band is still pulling a fast one on us. This thing is good. Much like Come to Mexico and Home Alone, Totorro’s latest shows off a nearly-literal lyrical style of math rock that’s half Midwest emo, half French joi de vivre, and all unmistakably excellent:
We waited a long time, yes, but Sofa So Good lets listeners know right away that it’s confident in it’s rightful space with the band’s aforementioned pair of classics, and after a couple of spins… well, let’s just say it’s up there, and maybe even competes with Come to Mexico.
The more the merrier we say, and Sofa So Good feels effortless in its succession to the band’s already established glory when it comes to the overall discography. But songs like “Matthews Bridge,” “Sensation IRL,” and Smile Paste” also give us the sense that Totorro continues to learn, absorb, and acquire new tricks, which makes them true contemporaries to math rock greats like Delta Sleep, And So I Watch You From Afar, Town Portal, Snooze, and so many more.
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