Supreme Beings Of Leisure: Supreme Beings Of Leisure

It could have happened differently. Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons could have fixated on something other than John Barry-inspired spy music, and the first Portishead album could have spawned a legion of imitators tuned into something else. Or maybe not. Maybe Portishead discovered a previously unknown need to match dance beats to retro-noir sounds. Either way, many bands, trip-hop and otherwise, now walk the trail blazed by the duo, a trend that came full circle last year when Garbage, the most successful popularizer of the Portishead aesthetic, recorded a James Bond theme. Arriving late but not unwelcome, the debut album from the globe-spanning but L.A.-based Supreme Beings Of Leisure would be a lot more objectionable it didn't go down so easily. Opening with a blatant cop from The Turtles' "You Showed Me" set to an irresistible beat, SBOL's self-titled album establishes immediately what it sets out to do. Fortunately, it does it well, if a bit too carefully. Scratches, propulsive techno, sitars, and strings all find their way into the mix, but only when useful to the song as a whole. Singer Geri Soriano-Lightwood's smooth vocals similarly keep things grounded, but it's better not to listen to the words: Though the group has crafted an enjoyable debut, nothing on Supreme Beings Of Leisure, lyrically or otherwise, indicates that it should be taken more seriously than its name suggests.