I’m usually reluctant to go too deep into music that on the surface seems shallow, or popular. Reading that this was reggae/funk hybrid band that sung on love initially made me shrivel.

But then I found a moment to listen to Otium’s two-track You, featuring the songs For You and With You and since then it’s been on repeat. For the past two days and counting…

If these guys aren’t famous yet, they soon will be.

There is nothing more mused on in art than love. It’s a multifaceted, subjective, and intangible emotion but something we all feel in some way at some point in our lives. It makes songs about love relatable and being about to relate makes songs more listenable.

Love is the focus of this EP (or single(s) depending on your understanding of how long either format should be) and each track speaks and feels of a different type of love.

There’s almost a diametric contrast between both the vibe of two songs, and the two types of love portrayed here. One comes from familiarity, the other from the new, that falling in love stage.

For You reflects a more… almost romantic, but erring on the side of appreciative, kind of love. It’s a slow heart-warmer of a song, a reflection of the lyrics. It’s the more relatable for me, if only because I’m more about quiet reflection, and less about burning off the worries of the week dancing.

And because With You is more about club love. Those fleeting emotional connections you feel with strangers on the dance floor. That primal, instinctual attraction. Appropriately, the music is funky and danceable. Perfectly suited to be danced to in a club or a gig. That means this song has more mainstream appeal. Is this on the radio yet? It should be.

Layered, and more complex than one would expect from something that on the surface just seems like another pop song. Like our nation, this music is a melting pot of style and genre. Not just rap, not just reggae, not just rock, and not funk, but elements of all of these things. It’s the kind of bridge we need in these dichotomy obsessed end times. Racism, sexism, classism; where is the love and humanism?

The two tracks presented on You show Otium aren’t just a one trick pony, defined and restricted by one style. It’s a good reflection of the diversity of the band and I think that’s what’s going to make them popular. Here’s hoping for a full release one day so we can really see how talented and diverse Otium are.

Review written by Peter-James Dries

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