The consummate Indie Pop/Alt music group Fitz and the Tantrums geared up for the Sept. 20 release of their fourth studio album, “All The Feels.” The band has been touring for over three months, releasing a couple of singles from the new album and performing them for some of their live audiences.

With lead Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs on vocals, John Wicks on percussion, Jeremy Ruzumna on keyboard, Joseph Karnes on bass guitar and James King on virtually every other instrument, the group is known for its generally upbeat, energetic and hopeful tone that it sought to recreate on a seventeen song album.

This particularly long grocery list of songs is certainly demonstrative of the tone that they have come to be known for, and as a consequence someone could dance to most, if not all, of these tracks. Making you want to dance would invariably become the secondary goal of the group.
If you prefer to dance to vinyl or CD, although the second option is much less likely and not as fun as the first, you may be missing out on three songs from the album that will only be available digitally.

These would be “Belladonna,” “Kiss The Sky” and “Livin’ For The Weekend.” Unfortunately for the die-hard fans of physical music, these three songs are a must-listen if you have any interest in the album.

Many people might find one of the songs off of the earlier portion of the album especially familiar. “I Just Wanna Shine” has been echoing throughout the homes of families with young children all summer as it is featured in back-to-school commercials Walmart has been running

This is another testament to the positive nature of the music. The Tantrum’s songs don’t typically shy away from adult themes, and yet this song was perfect to deliver a message to young children.

There are two songs in the later part of the album that have a much more brooding tone that doesn’t seem to completely fit with the more jovial objective of the other fifteen. The songs are called “Stop” and “Dark Days.” However, seeing as they are both still dance-worthy comparable to the rest of the album and succeed in communicating their individual, albeit darker themes, they definitely do not subtract from the quality of the overall album and you shouldn’t shy away from them.

In fact, the contrast that these songs supply for the rest of the album is powerful in helping elucidate the greater collective themes present in the rest of the tracks. In other words, it can definitely be said that this album has ‘all of the feels’ or at least a good majority.

The songs in this album were all specially crafted and cherry picked among a much larger list of 80 by Fitzpatrick and his crew. This level of care is evident in how well all 17 songs work together.

The group even released a music video this summer for the album’s title track that is definitely worth a little peek.

Ultimately the album succeeded in fulfilling the self-proclaimed mission statement of the band: to make you feel good and want to dance. So if that sounds like your definition of a good time, you’ll know where to look.