Milo Greene grows up with impressive new album

Leaving sparse, emotional sounds behind for their sophomore album, Los Angeles-based band Milo Greene is all grown up. Their new album Control, out for download on iTunes today, will mark a departure from the folk sound the band put out four years ago and brings their fans careening fast into 2015 with a groovy soundtrack filled with moody basslines and smokey lyrics.

The album opens with “White Lies,” a punchy break-up song filled with band member Marlana Sheetz’s haughty vocals. Though not the best song on the album, “White Lies” still sets the bar high for Control to deliver cool beats and pop lyrics that are sure to become hits and create great live shows.

“This album is a time capsule of our past year writing together [as a band],” bandmember and USC alumnus Graham Finke said. “A lot of our first material was just acoustic guitar, us getting to know each other and singing. This time we started with drum grooves, and it really shows how much we have changed over the year,” Fink’s favorite track from the album, “Lonely Eyes,” comes second to last and shows how the band has evolved together into a songwriting powerhouse. A synth-heavy drum line and fun lyrics make “Lonely Eyes” something that could be heard spinning from a DJ booth at a trendy Los Angeles bar in Hollywood. After listeners sit through “Lonely Eyes,” they’ll quickly realize that what Milo Greene has done is something like magic.

Starting as a group of friends who wrote music and enjoyed spending time together, Milo Greene lacked the cohesion and steadiness found in Control in their eponymous first album. In this one, there is a continuity and intentionality that takes it from a fun, lazy evening, pregame playlist to an album listeners will be telling their friends about for weeks.

According to Fink, all of the band members have their own personal tastes, which comprise the major influences for the album.

“We all love ’90s R&B. Boys 2 Men is actually on our preshow playlist,” said Fink.

In this album, listeners can also hear innovative beats reminiscent of the Talking Heads and Prince.

The 10th track on the album, “Lie To Me,” has a beachy, California vibe, and the potential to be a huge summer anthem. Upbeat, but also well written and expertly produced, “Lie To Me” doesn’t have the dark undertones found in other tracks on the album. Instead, the male and female vocals encourage happy go-lucky sing-alongs and will remind listeners of retro road trips with their windows down.

The process of writing Control was vastly different from that of their first album, according to Fink.

“We really had to trust each other this time around,” Fink said. “The first album came out before we were really a band — they were just songs written between friends that turned out to be something really special. This time, we had to learn how to trust each other, and to take criticism from each other, because that’s what this band is, four people signing off on these ideas.”

Fink used the words “time capsule” to describe Control more than once during his interview, showing that this album is really a representation of how Milo Greene has grown, innovated and developed since their inception four years ago.

The album’s fifth track, “Heartless,” sounds similar to the style of one of Milo Greene’s contemporaries, southern California’s very own  Haim.

“Heartless” defines Control and Milo Greene as a leading member of a new pack of edgy, electro pop that is beginning to take over the music scene. If fans have a hard time adjusting to Milo Greene’s evolving identity, it is hard to imagine how else they could be happy. Recognizing a band’s growth and evolving tastes is a crucial part of being a dedicated music lover.

The album ends with “Royal Blue,” an acoustic crooner that assures listeners that they were, in fact, listening to Milo Greene for the whole album. That being said, Control is definitely a welcome departure from a maybe passé pop-folk trend.

Hip, innovative, and excellently produced, Control is a perfect collection of pop songs to christen the spring of 2015. Milo Greene will be performing a headlining tour of Control this spring and coming to the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 19 .