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Lettuce: Fly

Velour

Lettuce specializes in a horn-heavy, swaggering sort of funk, one best matched with cutting a rug or strutting down the street. But on Fly, the fourth album from the 20-year-old septet, we’re treated to a few mellow moments, too—ones better suited for bouncing ideas than bouncing around the room. “Bowler,” especially, makes you move and marvel. Composed by keyboardist Neal Evans—in tribute, perhaps, to the bowler hats he often wears onstage—“Bowler” begins with a few seconds of dark, spaghettiwestern guitar before storming into ominous dub reggae horn lines over a Meters-y soul-jazz riff. Later sections involve Stax-ish country guitar and a feel-good horn idea that screams Cannonball Adderley. The title track opens on a spiritual plane, with fluttering flute, ethereal guitar and simmering cymbals over a B-natural pedal point. Adam Deitch’s bruising, sluggish-on-purpose drumming and a hazy, bluesy wah-wah guitar solo fuel the hypnotic slow jam “The Crusher.”