Muzz

Somehow simultaneously edgy yet soothing, these songs may not display the type of unbridled, jagged joy that these members’ main bands provide, but there is depth and complexity here, inviting immersive exploration.

A record that pulls you in slowly over repeated listens. [Summer 2020, p.103]

Those seeking another Interpol record won’t have much luck here, but ‘Muzz’ stands confident on its own two feet.

Muzz is a familiar culmination of previous individual sounds that mesh well together, but Muzz not only blends influences, but they also undertake new sonics to further push the progressiveness of the project. Muzz is nuanced in how it shifts from intimacy to defamiliarization, this indie gray area riffs off the familiar and transforms it into something entirely new.

An album that feels spacious and cinematic, genuinely human and loaded with emotion. It’s one of the classiest and most refined listening experiences you’ll have all year.

Banks, Kaufman and Barrick prove far more than the sum of their parts, turning on a bright light of their own.

Too often, supergroup side-projects come across as ego-building exercises, yet Banks has managed to avoid this with both his collaboration with Wu Tang Clan's RZA (on Banks & Steelz) and now with Muzz.

Much like your favorite pair of relaxed-fit jeans, broken in over time for a comfortable, casual aesthetic, the complex character of Muzz gradually unfurls into a terrifically cool album that should be wholly appreciated with repeated plays.

There's an organic, painted desert beauty to the album, and its drifting moods have an unhurried feel that may be due to its lengthy creation (the trio carved out time to record it over the course of nearly five years).