The self-titled debut album from New York indie-garage group Free Time, headed by Melbourne transplant Dion Nania and out this week via Underwater Peoples, strives for an unhurried, unworried charm with easy melodies and mellow, atonal vocals. Content with its conventional voice-guitar-percussion trio and flavored with strains of breezy punk and sixties tranquility, Free Time will likely please those who are fans of this sort of music, though overall it drifts too steadily towards repetitious sounds.
“I Lost Time” lazes under a balmy haze of soft rock as gentle wafts of nasally vocals pass on by. “It’s Alright” pops up a bright funk groove that somehow only accentuates the song’s mellowness. Meanwhile, “It Doesn’t Stop,” “Nature’s Cup,” and “Unified Europe” are all pleasant tracks with their mildly grooving rock, chiming guitars and pseudo-poetic lyrics, though they feel rather interchangeable with one another.
The album’s latter third delivers a more intriguing expansion of style. There’s the smooth melodic swirl of “Nothing But Nice” and the unusual sixties-inspired nursery jangle of “World Without Love.” But the highlight is probably “Just One,” a bright and celebratory anthem that lifts towards a spinning joyousness. This touch of passion is what gives the band its memorable note, as well as what makes listening to Free Time more than just a way to pass your own.
