Local Review: Dad Bod – Loop de Loop Miracle Ministries Lords of Glory

Dad Bod
Loop de Loop Miracle Ministries Lords of Glory
Cum Records
Street: 07.10
Dad Bod = Alabama Shakes + The Killers + The Lumineers

Hallelujah, thank the Lord for Dad Bod—your favorite SLC band has a brand new album, Loop de Loop Miracle Ministries Lords of Glory. The five-piece band, composed of brothers Michael, Matthew and Marcus Marinos, as well as Russ Alphin and Michael Morgan, will be releasing the album on July 10, ahead of their US tour with the Brazilian lo-fi indie band Ourã. If you know Dad Bod by their previous albums, 2021’s Pastels or 2019’s After Thought, you’ll be familiar with their powerful psychedelic indie-pop sound. Loop de Loop, as the title suggests, takes that sound to church, amplifying all of the jubilant groove that makes Dad Bod so special.  

Yes: Dad Bod’s sound is in the family of dad rock, in all the best of ways. Parts of Loop de Loop fall under the Paul Simon / Paul McCartney genius, using energetic, dynamic and memorable melodies. Tracks like “Beautiful People,” “Los Feliz” and “Cherry Tree” are warm, rich and resonant in a ‘round-the-campfire’ kind of way, and you’ll find yourself humming along to the hooks long before you know the lyrics. Other parts of the album can be classified in the Mumford & Sons / The Black Keys way, with equal parts ho-hey and sultry funk. “Fine Print,” “The Sound of a Memory (Forgive my Ways)” and “Feels Like Forever” demonstrate Dad Bod’s vibrant neo-blues rock style and, according to my car insurance app, have a high likelihood of increasing freeway driving speeds. Let the spirit of Loop de Loop Miracle Ministries Lords of Glory move you! 

“Alcohol” leads off the album as a melancholy anthem for the manic pixie dream girl, scintillatingly delicious and unattainable as ever: “The way she bites her lips, I— / And the curvature of her hips, I— / And her perfume in the air / And the fact she doesn’t care.” Dad Bod’s music video for the track, released in February, tells the memory of a drunken night—from a coterie of empty bottles to disembodied doll heads and floating 4th grade-diorama-esque planet-faces, these visuals manifest the dizzying effects of falling in love with a girl who “goes down like alcohol / Delicious to the taste.” “Fine Print” follows, a track with the driving force of an Imagine Dragons hit and a chant-as-verse that’s a ton of fun—“Fuck me, fuck you / Back again in a better groove.” 

A toxic lover is at the heart of these songs, and “I Simply Cannot Live (Without Her Love)” describes the object of the album’s doomed affair as an Eve-like character. Both poisonous and desirable, the lyrics of this track reveal that she’s an exhibitionist named Candy, in the business of trading “sacred secrets” for “a chance to be just like her.” A love like this certainly begets a lot of beautiful chaos. Tracks like “Nothing Feels Right” and “M.O.O.U.W.S.” (Maybe One of Us Will Score) are orchestral and aleatoric tunes akin to all the greats of classic rock: The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” These epic episodic songs are at once expansive and dimensional, embodying panic, pain, lust and heartache with tremendous and unexpected sound collages. My favorite track from Lood de Loop, “Feels Like Forever,” capitalizes on all of the energy these tracks have generated and brings it home with a big band jazz sound, in the style of Harry Styles with a little bit more indie twang. It’s the penultimate track and, in my opinion, a total show stealer—it’s about the consternation of a love that feels at once like absolutely everything and like nothing at all, and meanwhile is a frolic through Funkytown USA. Dance. Away. The. Pain! 

“Loz Feliz” is the album’s most downtempo and relaxed, providing a release from the tension created by the more atmospheric tracks. This is not to say it’s any less complex—sweetly mournful acoustic guitar accompanies the lyrics, which are delivered to us as if from a boys choir: “Oh how the time slips by / Old friends once by your side / Have all up and gone / Loved ones now memories / Beliefs now heresy.”  “The Sound of a Memory (Forgive Me)” and “Are You Sure?” are jaunty and folksy, the latter closing off the album with the kind of song that feels like one of those summer camp songs on the edge of your memory, heartfelt and familiar. Loop de Loop is a tour de force—it’s Dad Bod’s most magnificent and opulent record to date. Follow them @officialdadbod for tour updates and more. –Libby Leonard

Read more local album reviews:
Local Review: Whisperhawk – Kosmos Burger
Local Review: The Brobecks – Understanding the Brobecks