Derek “Chap Stique” Mount recalls a conversation he had a few years ago with Jerome Olds, the patriarch of the family whose sons started Family Force 5 over a decade ago. “At one point he said to me, ‘Hey man, you know what’s wrong with you guys? When you first came out, you were reckless. You’re not reckless anymore,’” recalls the guitarist. “And on this album, we wanted to capture that recklessness again. Just hit ‘record’ and see what happens.”

Rest assured, they kept hitting the button at the right time: Time Stands Still, the fourth album from Family Force 5, is an ambitious display of hip-hop hues, guitar bludgeoning, smoov R&B melodies, eye-winking pop-culture references, stentorian grace, personal reflections and infectious optimism. It’s the mixtape you made in the ’80s, but rewired and sequenced for the 21st century—and beyond. Mount and cohorts Jacob “Crouton” Olds (lead vocals, dancing shoes), Joshua “Fatty” Olds (bass, low-end theories), Nathan “Nadaddy” Currin (synthesizers, groove science) and Teddy “Hollywood” Boldt (drums, party fibrillator) have come to party positive with big beats and rapidimente rapping while offering moments of sincere inspiration. Producers Riley Friesen and Seth Mosley ably captured the band’s forward-in-all-directions worldview for maximum joy and reverence.

The Atlanta-based Family Force 5 have always been a bastion for exciting music and onstage dynamism. Their 2006 debut album, Business Up Front/Party In The Back, was teeming with guitar-driven crunk-metal, rapping and the commanding vocals of frontman Solomon “Soul Glow Activatur” Olds. The follow-up album, 2008’s Dance Or Die, found them broadening their realm of party-hearty possibilities, incorporating everything from radio-friendly pop to soundtracks for sweaty mosh pits and electro-driven dancefloors alike. 2010’s III found them maintaining a lean-and-mean rap-rock stance, aesthetically beating many similar-sounding chart-topping acts at their own game. Consider that they’ve also been in charge of their own destiny for the last six years, being fiercely independent, self-sufficient and beholden to absolutely no one. Team FF5 have always been a legion of road dogs, dialing up thousands of miles on touring vans and busses to bring their rockin’ good times to the planet. Anybody who’s been paying attention to them knows full well their party never stops, from touring hi-jinx (go stick “Really Real Show” into YouTube’s search engine and see what happens) to the post-show dance parties where the band members spin their favorite dance tracks for fans that didn’t want to go home quite yet. Respect for the band came from the most unusual places, whether it was asked to join Alternative Press magazine’s 2009 tour (alongside 3OH!3 and the Maine) or having the Oregon State University football team embrace their freewheeling track “Chainsaw” during games. The band may have well copyrighted the phrase, “go hard or go home,” when you consider they’ve built as much sweat equity as they have goodwill: Consider how their videos have garnered a cumulative 30 million views, and how they’ve held court at some of the world’s prestigious music festivals (Sonisphere, Bamboozle, EO Day, Warped Tour UK), in addition to scoring placement in everything from feature films (Warrior’s Way, Battleship, Almost Alice) and commercials (Target) to the veritable alphabet soup (ESPN, WWE, NHL, CBS Sports, MTV) of television. If you want to stop for a moment and take a breath after reading that last paragraph, feel free. They make a lot of other bands look like hopeless couch-surfing slackers.  

Presented in conjunction with LIVE NATION.