This is a first listen through, so I’ll be writing down as I hear it.
1) Nocturnal (feat. The Weeknd)
Never been the biggest fan of the Weeknd, pretty bland indie stuff. This track sounds like they’ve listened to the Drive soundtrack and tried to make something similar, but have ended up with a Spandau Ballet b-side.
2) Omen (feat. Sam Smith)
Oh yay, Sam Smith. Standard beat, pretty awful Top Shop deep house wah wah bassline. Chords, breakdown, more vocals blah blah blah. As Disclosure as Disclosure could be.
3) Holding On (feat. Gregory Porter)
Christ, try and make the kick sidechaining on the vocal a bit less obvious. Shuffly hats, how novel. Right, I’m at 3mins now and all I can think of is how similiar this track is to the previous one. Different bass patch, different singer, but essentially the same tune. Chords, breakdown, more vocals then the beat comes back in. Only difference is the skippier percussion. Wonder if I played the two over the top of each other whether we’d have phasing issues.
4) Hourglass (feat. LION BABE)
Who the fuck is Lion Babe and why does her name need to be in capitals? That aside, the beat is slightly less pedestrian here. It’s more warmup Drumcode leaning techno. Any excitement goes around 45s when the Disclosure chords creep in again. More skippy hats with a short decay, and even a white noise sweep before the wah wah bass comes in. Three in a row now that are just basically carbon copy club tracks.
I’m sure if this is your sort of thing, then you’ll be happy…but honestly, this is something I might see at a large festival if I can’t be arsed with whatever is on the main stage. But it’s hardly pushing boundaries. Unless you’re a Clapham wine bar that wants to up it’s game, maybe.
5) Willing & Able (feat. Kwabs)
Hmmm, now this is something different. A lot slower, bit more of a tribal vibe to it. Chords are back (again) but they’re a lot slower and it’s got kind of a late 90s RnB vibe to it. Good vocal as well…this has got a hint of Brenmar about it (if he did too much mandy down Yates). Not a bad breakdown, short and poppy. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I actually quite like this, in a slower jam sexytime kinda way.
6) Magnets (feat. Lorde)
Just for the record, before I start listening to this, I fucking love Lorde. I guess that’s full disclosure about Disclosure? HAH. How fucking meta.
Chords have a slightly longer attack on them this time, just to switch it up a bit. Different percussion sample, more understated drums. Lorde’s vocal is pretty dominant (not that this is a bad thing). Found myself head nodding when the beat properly comes in. However, I’m fairly sure this is because I’m a fan of the singer, not the track itself.
If this was on a Lorde album, it wouldn’t be out of place. But in the context of a Disclosure album, this feels a lot more like a Lorde track that they produced than it does a Disclosure track with her singing on it.
7) Jaded
Fuck sake, 2 bars in and I already know I’m going to hate this. Sounds like bad electro pop house around the time Radio1 starting sucking Freddy Le Grande’s cock. Abhorrent.
8) Good Intentions (feat. Good Intentions)
Wah wah sound is very Ten Walls this time round. Standard vocal processing. Another generic club orientated track. Slightly more shimmery synths, but otherwise pretty indistinguishable from what has come before.
9) Superego (feat. Nao)
More of that slower RnB jam stuff. Beat sounds like Timbaland and Julio Bashmore on a bad day. Vocal is really nice though (in comparison). Can see this being a bit of a singalong tune if I gave it a few more listens. Those 909 hat rolls are fucking annoying though.
10) Echoes
Holy fucking shit, something that isn’t a generic house beat! It’s a generic two-step beat instead! Good of the boys to remind us that they came from a UK garage background. Ahhh, this is actually quite fun. Very basic beat but the skippy percussion and the short stabby bass is very atypical. It’s not great, kinda sounds like a UK garage pastiche by someone who has only used UK garage as their frame of reference, but in terms of breaking up the generic shite that seems to clutter much of this album so far it’s quite refreshing.
11) Masterpiece (feat. Jordan Rakei)
Oh, a rain storm sample. How fucking edgy. Lot slower beat here, like a melancholic RnB cut. Seeing a lot of the late 90s/early 00s RnB influences in this album, vocal has me thinking of KC and JoJo stuff. Works well with the thicker synth line here. Quite good. I’m liking this one, it can stay.
12) Molecules
Annnnnnnnnnd we’re back in generic 4/4 territory. Bland and forgettable.
13) Moving Mountains
More of the same? Sounds like it’s going to be more of the same. Oh wait, it’s not. Was waiting for a generic beat that never came. This is more of that RnB slow jam stuff. Quite sparse and minimal than the rest though. Oh shit, there is a beat that comes in VERY late in the track. Wow, this is actually quite interesting, nice to see one of the tracks on her actually showing some progression and finishing somewhere different from where it started. This is a good one.
14) Afterthought
Let’s finish with some generic house, shall we? More of the same, this isn’t anything that stands out. Suitable way to finish the album, but ultimately forgettable. And it’s called “Afterthought”. Very apt.
Summary
Not all bad. I enjoyed five tracks out of the 14. The Lorde track wasn’t bad but ultimately didn’t feel like one of theirs. However, the majority of this LP is bland, generic house that borders on self parody. It’s no surprise that the only tracks I can see myself listening to again were the ones that did something other than bland, generic house.
The album opener (even though it should be chalked up as a failed experiment) gave me hope that this album was going to go somewhere different, but it didn’t. They have a formula, it’s obviously working for them and making them money, so why should they step too far outside of the comfort zone and risk their Radio1 airplay?