Review
Genre and Mood
Deluxe’s “Pretty Flaws” is soul-leaning pop from a band better known for funk, hip-hop and party horns, and it is the album’s dreamy, intimate exception: the moment the moustachioed band from Aix-en-Provence turns the volume down.
Song Summary
“Pretty Flaws” is the fourth track of The Deluxe Family Show, the band’s first album, released on Chinese Man Records in September 2013. Reviewing it for festivalinfo.nl, Nicole Verbeek found an album hard to sit still to, a funky mix of electro-pop, soul, hip-hop and rock with guest rappers, and then this: with Pretty Flaws, she wrote, Liliboy lets you hear a completely different sound. It is a very dreamy song, made of a little bass, piano and drums and above all captivating vocals, totally different from what comes before it and from what comes after. The lyric is not discussed in any source used here.
Musical Breakdown
No source walks through the song section by section, so the breakdown stays with what the review describes.
The Band, Pared Down
Deluxe is a six-piece with guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion, sampler and horns. On Pretty Flaws the review hears only a little bass, piano and drums, which makes the song’s spareness its most striking feature.
The Voice in Front
What fills the space is Liliboy. Verbeek describes a voice that brings an instant smile, not too sweet, a little playful and with an edge, and on this track it carries the song.
Concepts in Focus
A groove does not need a full band. The groove here, by the review’s account, is three instruments, bass, piano and drums, playing little enough to leave the voice room. A band that can fill a stage with horns and turntables shows its control by holding back.
A remix can extend a song’s life before its album even appears. Before the album, the band’s Daniel EP already carried a Chinese Man Remix of Pretty Flaws, as Deluxe’s own channel credits it. Chinese Man are the group who discovered Deluxe playing in the streets, and their label, Chinese Man Records, released the band’s first records.
Artistic Context
Deluxe formed in Aix-en-Provence in 2007; Liliboy, the singer and rapper, joined in 2010. The line-up around her is Kaya on bass and MPC, Kilo on drums and turntables, Pietre on guitar and keyboards, Soubri on percussion and machines and Pepe on saxophone and keyboards. Their emblem is the moustache. The Deluxe Family Show followed the EPs Polishing Peanuts and Daniel, and was followed in 2016 by Stachelight, which includes Deluxe – Tum Rakak.
Impact and Reception
Festivalinfo.nl’s review ends on an album full of distinctive songs, and Pretty Flaws is the one it sets apart. It is here as the surprise in a party record: put it on after Tum Rakak and hear the same band turn quiet.
