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
2		Heaven
3		Sway
4		Silver Platter
5		Let Yourself Free
6		Moneymaker
7		Ahhhh
8		Good Nights
9		Big Love
10		Is It Love
11		Steppin' On Me
12		Someday