If there's one thing Fitz the Tantrums know how to do it's make hooky, pop-soul anthems that feel like commercials for themselves. It's that unabashedly feel-good energy they bring to their fifth album, 2022's Let Yourself Free. Beginning with 2013's More Than Just a Dream, the Los Angeles-based band (led by vocalist Michael Fitzpatrick) has inched further away from the quirky, home-recorded Motown vibe of their debut. The transformation reached its apex with 2016's "Handclap," an inescapable earworm that worked as both a declaration of the band's ability to write a hit and bit of a tongue-in-cheek threat. With Let Yourself Free, they hold on to all of that mainstream pop savvy while still managing to throw things back to their humble D.I.Y. R&B beginnings. Heralded several months prior by the balmy summer single "Sway," the album is the group's best stylistic mix between their early neo-soul style and the slick dance-pop they've embraced. Of the former, "Silver Platter" and "Steppin' on Me" come the closest to recapturing the intimately sweaty, '60s collegiate house-party vibe of the band's debut. These are melodic, swoon-worthy tracks where the warm vocals of singers Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs are doused in springy reverb and spectral R&B guitar accents. We also get the '90s new jack swing intimations of "Is It Love," where Fitzpatrick frames himself with a crooning sea of his own multi-tracked backing vocals like a clone version of Boyz II Men. More in keeping with the group's knack for writing catchy, soundtrack-level pop songs are the funky "Moneymaker," the piano-driven "Heaven," and the synthy, '80s dance-pop romanticism of "Big Love." Fitz the Tantrums know exactly what they are doing, and Let Yourself Free is a confident, no-apologies pop album that still has soul. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi

1		Good Intentions[null]
2		Heaven[null]
3		Sway[null]
4		Silver Platter[null]
5		Let Yourself Free[null]
6		Moneymaker[null]
7		Ahhhh[null]
8		Good Nights[null]
9		Big Love[null]
10		Is It Love[null]
11		Steppin' On Me[null]
12		Someday
13		24[null]
14		Get On Up[null]
15		So What
16		Fancy[null]
17		On My Way[null]
18		Feeling Good[null]