Fitz & The Tantrums

Songs For a Break Up, Volume 1 (Future Sounds)

By Selena Fragassi
Published: July 31st, 2009 | 11:59pm

Breaking up may be hard to do, but for Fitz & the Tantrums (L.A.’s newest band from the reinvented Motown milieu), breaking up is downright fun. Or so the five-song EP,

Songs For a Break Up, Volume 1,

would leave you believe — its high-spirited rhythms would be the honor-roll child of Mark Ronson and Sharon Jones with the bad-ass influence of Uncle James Brown.

Allegedly, the story goes that the French-born Fitz was forced to buy a piano from a high-tailing friend who desperately needed the sale. $50 and mere hours later, the song “Breakin’ the Chains Of Love” was born, inspiring the theme of the album in the style of popular '60s soul music. The Doris Day story continues as Fitz recorded his near-perfect debut in the dark corners of his basement, got himself some notable backup performers, one slick wardrobe, and a growing buzz that hit at just the right time.

Some guys have all the luck, but to say Fitz does it all himself would be a disservice to the incredible talent of the men and woman behind him who complete the full sound with snappy saxophone, loaded drums, and soft female vocals, most notably on “Chains Of Love” and “Winds Of Change,” although all five songs have their own single-worthy merit.

Whatever Fitz’s ex-lover did to scorn him, we can only thank them for inspiring him to write Songs For a Break Up, Volume 1 and ask her to maybe call him sometime so the rest of us can look forward to Volume 2.

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