Time Traveller

AMG Review of Time Traveller

Andy Kellman
All Music Guide

The title of Jack Splash and his fellow revelers' third album is indicative, not that it wouldn't be telling as a title for either one of Plantlife's first two full-lengths. It's steeped a little more in synth-funk than Remembering Back to Now and The Return of Jack Splash, but Time Traveller is definitely all about funk, whether that means James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Funkadelic, or Prince. In various guitar riffs, basslines, and choruses, there are subtle allusions to '60s, '70s, and '80s funk nuggets -- "Was that Mass Production, or was it Heatwave...or was it both?" -- while "Agirllikeudeservesamanwhotreatsuhowulike" pretty much lifts Ray Parker Jr. & Raydio's "It's Time to Party Now" wholesale, despite its Princely title. Splash's bratty Lil Wayne-meets-Michael Henderson falsetto can wear thin across 66 sprawling minutes (the crew would benefit from a second lead voice), but something far more problematic would have to be in play to impair this stomping good time.