For the Canadian-American soul-jazz collective Busty and the Bass, collaboration has always been at the forefront of their music. Formed at the Schulich School of Music in Montreal over a decade ago, the group’s collaborative spirit remains at the heart of their most recent studio album, Forever Never Cares.

‍

Over the years, the group has joined forces with legendary artists such as George Clinton, Macy Gray, and Earth Wind & Fire, and worked alongside contemporary collaborators such as Illa J, Terrace Martin, and Amber Navran of Moonchild. Despite such a strong history of partnerships, their third studio album Forever Never Cares reshaped the band’s creative formula and redefined how they worked together a decade into their career.

‍

After a founding member and songwriter left the band in 2022, the collective used the opportunity to re-approach their creative process for the first time in years. Songs would be brought to the group from individual members or smaller formations of two or three members writing together. Interestingly, more voices involved in the songwriting resulted in the group’s most refined output to date.

‍

Two previous studio albums, Uncommon Good (2017) and Eddie (2020), saw the band experiment with genres, effortlessly changing styles song to song, from soul to funk to pop. Forever Never Cares finds the collective both broadening and distilling their influences into a unified sound that is entirely their own. This is due in large part to founding member Christopher Vincent who engineered and mixed the album. Vincent found a sonic language that would compliment all of the ​​disparate genres being stacked atop one another.

‍

With soul and R&B as the album’s cornerstone, the record is sprinkled with cross-genre explorations. From the indie rock-inflected uptempo singles “All The Things I Couldn’t Say To You” and “Wandering Lies,” to slow-burn ballads like “Give Me A Smile” and “Never Get Enough,” to the celebratory pop-funk of “Starstruck” and “No Angels,” a touch of 70s singer-songwriter on “Smoke and the Pine” and “Holiday Drive,” and the psychedelic jazz explorations of “Far From Here” and “No Self Control” featuring saxophonist Terrace Martin, a frequent collaborator of Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper.

‍

The album sounds, at once, of a bygone era and completely modern, featuring dynamic live performances, expansive arrangements, and a wide array of vocal approaches including the heartfelt expressiveness of founding member Alistair Blu, the otherworldly falsetto of Jordan Brown, the smokey soul of Katie Tupper, and the playfulness of Magi Merlin. The moment you think you know which direction the album is going, it takes another unexpected turn, but you are always delighted by the eventual destination.

‍

“Forever Never Cares is a gentle reminder to let go of attachment,” explains vocalist Alistair Blu. “The album is about leaving behind the small things in life that we obsess over. It’s about embracing uncertainty.” 

‍

And for a group of musicians entering a period of change, it’s a testament to their creative connection that they were able to produce their most cohesive and adventurous album to date.

‍

“This album is the culmination of 10 years as a band,” says Christopher Vincent. “All the ups and downs, members coming and going. But it’s also a crystallization of what we’ve been trying to achieve for years.” 

‍