There's a good amount to love on the Harvard Opportunes' latest release, In The Crowd, and a sizable amount to like a lot as well — all of which adds up to solid album that I recommend you download and have a listen to.

It's in that space — between "love" and "like (a lot)" — that all the difference lies.

Unsurprisingly, at the extreme, amazeballs, fan-frickin'-tastic end of things is the group's multi-CARA-recognized cover of Rihanna's Where Have You Been, arranged by Eric Tarlin and Isa Peña, and featuring a go-for-broke fantastic solo by Peña, which took the award for Best Mixed Collegiate Lead Vocal, along with the song's honors for Best Mixed Collegiate Song and Best Mixed Collegiate Arrangement.

Why is this take so great? It's not merely that all of the various elements — arrangement, performance, tuning, energy, production — are universally first-rate. It's the blend of novelty and familiarity, of inventiveness and fidelity. Nothing is too much, but there is always something new and/or interesting (or both) going on: be it the unexpectedly slowed-down opening, the major re-harms in the 1st chorus and into the 2nd verse, the tasteful interpolation of Please Don't Stop the Music, or the breakdown that follows. It's all spot-on, and the end result is brilliant.

If you'll indulge a brief tangent, there's also an arranging lesson in Where Have You Been that I wish more collegiate groups would embrace more frequently, in particular on their uptempo, dancier/clubbier tunes. So often collegiate arrangements can't resist the urge to add "pads" (i.e. chordal blocks) underneath everything they do, perhaps for fear that their sound will be emptier or the melody won't be properly anchored in the background voices. Where Have You Been is by no means the first example of this at all — certain groups and/or certain arrangers have been doing this for many years with dazzling results — but it's an excellent case study in using a layering of short, percussive rhythmic patterns to create and enhance the groove and feel of an a cappella cover, rather than smoothing over those edges and undermining the "bop" with lush, expansive chordal pads.

Now that I've praised the group for their arranging (and performing, and producing) power on the opener, it's also perhaps fair to say that the musicians go back to the well a few too many times in succession with some of their favorite "schtick". That is, Think About Things, Put On A Smile, and Remember also start slower than their ultimate destination tempos and ramp up as they go. In the case of Think About Things, the ramp-up is pretty quick and the cover is super fun and super tight, even if it feels like an arrangement for a decidedly smaller group and also may suffer slightly by comparison to the preceding track. Put On A Smile and Remember are certainly fine, but the former doesn't quite have the finesse in the arrangement that the first two songs showcase. We get a more choral approach to the opening minute, and when the chorus shifts to more supportive background voices, their patterns are overly busy and competing with the solo at times, as is their volume. Remember actually falls victim to the very thing I described above: the arranging of the backs and the performance style is a bit smoother than I want it to be, dulling the edges of the feel. There's less "air" for the rhythms to come through leading into the breakdown section at the end, and that breakdown doesn't really add or build to anything of significant substance.

The remainder of the album is once again an almost-even mix of "love" vs "like a lot". Break My Heart Again is a somewhat revisionist take on the original, scaling up Finneas's original that is mostly piano and tremolo strings, adding a backbeat by verse two, and getting quite loud in the second half of the song. But it's a definitive and well-executed artistic choice. And while I'm not madly in love with it personally, it perfectly sets up the stripped-down ending down the octave, which is very effective. Denim Jacket is an unexpected repertoire choice, and a delightful one at that. It harkens back to Think About Things in feeling like an arrangement for a smaller group, but that's not a criticism. And the scat interlude between the first two verses, substituting for the sax duet in the original, is just marvelous.

On the flip side, there's really nothing of great note to be said about Blue, How Will I Know, or Colder Weather, except that they are quite good without being up to the level of the best this album otherwise has to offer. Blue is much, much bigger and louder than the original, but unlike Break My Heart Again, its insistence isn't as well earned or well executed. How Will I Know is pure kitsch, which probably might have been a "3" without Nicole Alexander's passionate solo elevating the proceedings. And Colder Weather gets scaled up a little sooner than it should, in an arrangement which might reasonably be called conventional.

So if you only want to "love", I'd suggest you at least download the "5"s scored here. But In The Crowd as a whole is still a fun and entertaining listen, so why not go for it all?

The Opportunes may just be a bit too clever for their own good. The group's latest album, In The Crowd, is quite the play on words simply for the fact that none of these tracks would ever get lost in a crowd of other songs. What's so great about what the Opportunes have woven together here is that the music feels timely, the group's vocals are massive, and it feels authentically like the Opportunes.

One of the major captivating elements of In The Crowd is the group's uncanny ability to open a song with dark and heavy tones before morphing it into immaculate art. The first ten to fifteen seconds of a song tend to differ drastically from what you get by the end. Where Have You Been and Put On A Smile are perfect examples.

Where Have You Been pulls double duty as both a great opener and a generally exciting track. The heaviness in the Opportunes' singing as they open is gripping before pivoting into a larger-than-life display of exhilarating vocal prowess, creative and highly complex percussion, and one of the craziest bridge sections in recent memory. While the singing is top-notch, it is the group's chord accuracy and the execution of the arrangement that make the song a fun and wild ride.

Put On A Smile similarly displays both a phenomenal lead who crushes their solo and a stunning arrangement. What is impossible to ignore on Put On A Smile is how each section sounds like a grand vocal moment. Whether it is the stirring runs of the backing vocals in the second chorus or the first utterance of "put on a smile" by the lead going into the first, each moment on the track matters. Everything about this song hits just right.

Even the tracks that open with more fervor from the start are impactful. Blue opens with some serious soul. The track is wonderfully paced, drawing the listener's ears to the track's rich low end and putting a spotlight on how cohesive the group is when grappling with intricate emotions. That same cohesion is heard on Colder Weather, which is full of warm vocals before dishing out the fireworks. The build-up on this track is unlike anything else on the album and is constantly fueled by a technically savvy soloist and an impressive percussion performance.

Props are in order for the Opportunes' decision to include Break My Heart Again. It is a refreshing respite from the album's high-octane moments with its emotionally gripping performance. The melancholy undertones, the intentional singing from the backing group, and the gentle and heartbreaking delivery of a lower-voiced solo is sheer perfection.

There is something so remarkable about each arrangement on In The Crowd that fuses and balances energy, art, and emotion. The Opportunes can belt their faces off then turn around and have you weeping with a somber ballad. Every track delivers original musical thoughts that make for a satisfying listening experience. This is why you will love this project!

I really, really like In The Crowd, but I want to love it. The Harvard Opportunes demonstrate such a high degree of proficiency in sound, well-fitting song choice, arrangements, and well-paced delivery that is super rare in collegiate groups. What holds the album back from true greatness, however, is a reluctance to show true vulnerability — and it dampens the impact of what is, despite that, still quite good.

To the group's credit, the album's structure hides this reluctance quite well. Where Have You Been is, to put it bluntly, a straight banger. It pops with energy and momentum, and a fantastic solo by Isa Peña drives it to brilliance. Think About Things blossoms similarly; while I don't love the doubled track in the very intro (Nico Barlos's voice doesn't need the assistance, and it feels a bit insecure with the double), the rest of the track is so infectiously fun and does great justice to one of my favorite songs of the past several years. I can give similar praise to Remember, and How Will I Know is so good that it almost convinced me on its own that this album deserved a perfect score.

All of these amazing highs, however, conceal a fear of vulnerability shown elsewhere on the album. As the album's tracks attempt to delve into quieter, gentler, more emotionally resonant places, the Harvard Opportunes only scratch the surface of these opportunities. Sometimes the album feels too loud when it's trying to be quiet, sometimes it's quiet but the voices still sound like they're trying to punch through, and sometimes the voices are gentle but they don't sound vocally and emotionally expressive.

Interestingly enough, I noted a similar reservation in my review of A Moment Or Two about four years ago. On that album I attributed the issue to the arrangement choices, but I don't think that's the issue here for the most part. I believe it's a vocal expression element, both for certain soloist moments and for the background voices. Break My Heart Again probably gets the closest to living out this potential; but even while listening to its quietest moments, the track feels safe. Put On A Smile, Blue, and Colder Weather have similar issues — definitely solid tracks, where they seem to front a more emotionally intimate experience but then simply sound like great voices. Not bad, but could be so much more. Moments of greatness, but missed opportunities as well. Denim Jacket, by itself, is an incredibly clean and solid uptune, but in the context of the album's underutilized gentler moments, it doesn't come across as refreshing in the greater album arc as it should.

All that being said, it's important to respecify that this album is still super solid, and it's got a ton of listenability from me even with my issues. In The Crowd sits at a succinct thirty-three and a half minutes, with a great arc as it transitions from big pop bangers to solemn emotional ballads to everything in between. And while I wish the songs on the ballad end of the spectrum delved deeper into their potential, listening to the whole release is undoubtedly worth it for tracks like How Will I Know and Where Have You Been. There is something to be said about an album with a journey, and this one undoubtedly still provides one worth embarking on.