Album Review: Living The Dream, by Olio

Disclaimer: I am in no way qualified to be reviewing music. I'm just a guy with a blog and a passionate, debilitating love for music.

Olio is an interesting concoction. They span multiple genres, reflecting their multiple influences. Some of the genres touched in the 10 song release are pop, soul, funk, hip-hop, and straightforward rock. Their album Living the Dream pulls from all of those influences and comes away being a little disjointed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't rock. Truth be told, I am hooked on the very first track "Here We Go". It is a great opener and evokes a hip hop summer jam, especially with Young Crew helping out with the vocals.

A few tracks in you get to "Soccer Mom", a pop-punk song where the group professes their love of...you guessed it, a soccer mom. They're saying what you're thinking and it's a great song that doesn't take itself seriously. Its very catchy and pulls from a completely different set of influences that "Here We Go".

"Living the Dream" combines soulful backing vocals with rock and is an uplifting closing to the album.

A couple songs like "Bad Apple" and "Four Letter Word" do fall a little flat. The lyrics on these two songs come across as a little cliché ("Bad Apple, rotten to the core" and "You make love a four-letter word come to mind). The musicianship is always high quality however; all of the songs sound full and have great dynamics. Given the full sound, I think it is pretty safe to say that each of Olio's three members is a jack of all trades. You'll hear lead vocals from each as well as a lot of variety in instrumentation.


As odd as it sounds, the variety is the common theme. The trio consists of a DJ, film composer, and music/arts director and each gets his time to shine. There is a definite level of comfort with each genre they explore and it was a pleasure to listen to the album. I recommend it to anyone who wants something different, but has no idea what that is.

Check out their music below. Trust me, you'll be looping "Here We Go".