If you haven’t already heard of the band Lake Street Dive, it won’t be long. The dynamic group of former New England Conservatory students from Boston is winning the hearts of listeners from all over. Lake Street Dive’s most recent album, “Bad Self Portraits,” was released by Signature Sounds Recordings this past February and has received positive reviews, earning them huge performances on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “The Colbert Report”, “Late Show With David Letterman” and more.

The album is a masterful blend of jazz, folk, and pop, incorporating lead singer Rachel Price’s incredibly soulful vocals with the rest of the band’s musical versatility. The other members are Bridget Kearney, who brings a tasteful upright bass to the group, trumpet-playing guitarist Mike Olson, and drummer Mike Calabrese. Each track on the eleven-song record has its own feel, groove and moment that makes you stop and say “Wait, play that part again!”

The upbeat “You Go Down Smooth” is sure to grab any listener’s attention. The song is set on a rising trajectory from the very beginning, building slowly until the final refrain, which adds a chilling chorus of backup vocals to Price’s strong performance, horn harmonies, and a quarter-note bass pulse that pushes through to the end of the song. The band chose to play “You Go Down Smooth” for Ellen DeGeneres and Stephen Colbert.

“Rental Love”, the short (2:37) but incredibly sweet song that concludes the album, is an opportunity to fully appreciate Price’s raw talent. In this track (and many others on the album) Price makes you feel the lyrics she is singing, talking about a love that, despite all of the effort and heart put into it, didn’t work out. The powerful ballad rounds out the album with Price belting, “I wanted to be your whole world, I wanted it all, I wanted it all.”

With the voice that Price has, it would be easy for Kearney (bass), Olson (guitar) and Calabrese (drums) to play in the shadows. This is not the case. All three instrumentalists wrote songs for the album, and all are featured at one point or another. Kearney’s groovy bass opens “Use Me Up”, Calabrese takes lead vocals for a verse in “Seventeen,” and Olson shows off his jazz trumpet chops in the slow and jazzy ballad, “Better Than.”.

“Bad Self Portraits” has put Lake Street Dive on the map. And with huge performances in the coming months like Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Red Rocks with Grace Potter, and their own headlining tour, their climb will only accelerate. 

The album is fun, funky, and feisty. Think Amy Winehouse meets the Beatles for a date in Motown. Listeners from any genre, or generation, for that matter, will enjoy these charismatic jazzers and their unique jazz-pop sound. Pick up “Bad Self Portraits” and get acquainted with the group that Rolling Stone has called “The Year’s Best New Band.”

You can stream the album in full below!

-John Nowak (@jowak93)