Body Questions

Album review

Seth Kauffman is one of those nerdy guys who inexplicably knows how to groove, and is willing to show off his skills with remarkably little provocation. 2014's Body Questions is Kauffman's fourth album under the Floating Action rubric, and while it isn't exactly funky, it sure sounds soulful and you can dance to it, even when the songs suggest Kauffman could have written them while daydreaming during a freshman chemistry class. Kauffman plays nearly all the instruments himself on Body Questions, and the smart-guy-in-his-rec-room attack works well on these songs; unlike most music built through overdubbing, Body Questions feels organic and human, and even when Kauffman flubs his drum parts (which happens more often than you'd expect), he generates a gentle but powerfully insistent rhythm as he sings, usually about love and relationships, in a style that doesn't exactly camouflage his nerdier side. But as we all know, nerds need love too, and think about it even more than the average guy, which certainly befits Kauffman; if the soul and R&B moves in his music occasionally appear just a shade rickety, they're deeply felt, and whether he's thinking about the ladies or pondering his place in the larger universe, these songs are open, honest, personal, and engaging. Kauffman knows how to write, he's a good (if not flawless) hand with various instruments, he has a real knack for working in the studio, and his voice sounds modest yet quietly confident at the same time; if you're going to get your nerdy groove on, Seth Kauffman is the guy to do it with, and Floating Action's Body Questions is an ideal soundtrack for the thinking person's quiet storm.

© Mark Deming /TiVo