As critics of a mostly cover-based medium, we at RARB have to be careful about our own music preferences leading to bias in our opinions and writing. ("Oh cool, someone covered my favorite Spanish sci-fi-themed technical death metal band? It's going to be awesome and I'm sure I'm going to love it!")

So, when I saw that the Loreleis' 11:30 is a Destiny's Child medley, I wanted to listen with great caution: I have a surprisingly soft spot in my music-loving heart for that quartet-turned-trio, and I wanted to make sure I didn't automatically LOVE this just based on my opinion of the source material.

Luckily for my ears, 11:30 is generally great: individual songs sound good, and the transitions between them are, to be blunt, AWESOME. Kicking off with Bills, Bills, Bills is a solid choice, and then the smooth slide into an unexpectedly sultry then sassy version of Jumpin', Jumpin' is a phenomenal song swap. Save for my spoiling it here, you won't hear it coming, and every single note is stunningly on point. The Loreleis cycle through three more songs (I won't name them, just to keep the suspense, but they aren't all the most obvious choices), and every one of the transitions is smooth and seamless. The hardest thing about medleys for most a cappella groups is the transitions, and the Loreleis make these changes as musically relevant as the actual songs in the medleys. It's not just "song A" slammed into "song B"; the bars between songs serve a purpose and feature actual melodies.

I've touched on the singers and the arrangement, but there's one other heroine here who needs a shout-out by name: the percussionist (Ellie Riggsbee) anchors each of the five songs and backs off when they're not needed. This is some of the best percussion I've heard from a treble group in a while, and Riggsbee gives these songs a solid beat without being flashy or distracting. The Loreleis state on their website that they recorded 11:30 because it "was one of our favorite performances from last year and we are so excited to be able to listen to it for the rest of time". I'm so glad they did, and I also hope that they're equally as excited to record another full-length album soon, because there are a lot of strengths here that I'd love to hear more of.