Rashida Jones, Singer, Sounds Pretty Damn Great On New Throwback Dance Jam

It should not come as a surprise that Rashida Jones is a talented singer, even though the actors-singing genre is generally quite bleak. It’s not even that her pops is Quincy Jones, one of the most important producers in America and the world—just because your dad produced Thriller doesn’t guarantee you’ll be born without tone deafness. She’s let us in to her raspy contralto before, in films like Monogamy and Park & Recs. But this new jam, “Flip and Rewind,” is neither twee nor melodramatic, folky or comedic: she’s going in like an early ‘80s dancefloor starlet, the way only a person who grew up internalizing the tone and groove of the Mary Jane Girls and Teena Marie could.

“Flip and Rewind” is actually the creation of Boss Selection, the new project from producer Sunny Levine, who’s worked with a roster so varied it includes both Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn. He’s also done the score for Celeste & Jesse Forever, that Jones/Andy Samberg rom com, so the Jones connection is there—but even if he didn’t know her from the movies, even if she weren’t a famous actor or the daughter of the man who created some of the funkiest songs in the history of music, he was smart to reach out. Clearly Boss Selection is going for that post-disco, loping BPM glam that really hit its sweet spot around 1982; it wouldn’t have been prudent to get a flashier vocalist, as those jams were all about letting the vibe wash over you, not being zapped into the wave. And if this portends Boss Selection’s album, forthcoming December 8, he will have hit his own sweet spot with throwback jams nestled cuddly in our hearts. His last single, with ORELIA, nailed it just as well. Looking forward to this one.