“Surprise Hotel”
from the album Fool’s Gold
2009
iTunes
Fool’s Gold’s repeat-ready single “Surprise Hotel” is a gloriously busy bit of life-affirming Afro-pop that takes no issue with demanding that you take it for a beachside bike ride. The band rotates around Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov and also enlists friends and colleagues that include members of Foreign Born and Glasser. On a self-titled debut brimming with them, “Surprise Hotel” is a whirling dervish of a cut delivered with charm, grace, and maximum two-stepability. Light yet bracing polyrhythms anchor an addictive little high-register guitar line that loops and wiggles on and off the beaten path, perfectly coupled with Afro-funk bass stylings and buttery bilingual coos (yes, Top sings in English and Hebrew). With music this immersed in wide-ranging global and regional influence, you’d fear Fool’s Gold’s music might come over as empty pastiche, but no worries. Worldly and warm without being cloying, “Surprise Hotel” more than surprises: it prevails.