Released:
Rating:
You wanted a hit? Well here’s ten of them.
Label: Warner Bros
Released: 24th March 2017
Rating: ★★★★★
The bells and whistles of insatiable groove after insatiable groove live throughout ‘Look At The Powerful People’, bursting at the seam on recent single ‘Pleasure’ and opener ‘Drugs’, lead by the soulful depths of Will Ritson’s vocal refrains. Formation truly live within the chilling backdrop of late night London life and the dance floors of modern Britannia. The sultry pulsations of ‘Powerful People’ have a depth of anti-establishment power far from the jumpy nights of youthful abandon that sugar-coat it, with ‘Gods’ a delicate croon through post-punk and dark neon record collections, delivering a confidence and swagger that truly lives throughout the record.
Yet ‘Look At The Powerful People’ doesn’t just sit within that comfortable electro-vibe brigade, rupturing into an aggressive rage with ‘Buy And Sell’, a full throttle punk pumper that sounds like it’s pulling down the sounds around it. If anything, the record is a dedicated soundtrack to a night living in the UK but dreaming of further afield, where time and location no longer matter and there’s only the moment to live within. ‘A Friend’ bristles with unbridled joy and emotion, while album closer ‘Ring’ is pure euphoric bliss, with a panoramic choral refrain that draws together elements of gospel’s most brutally raw moments.
What Formation manage to accomplish on ‘Look At The Powerful People’ is staggering, channelling the levels of control, anger and tension that inhabit the world we live in by opening their arms and creating an undeniably inclusive record. It’s an incredibly rich body of work, that when sliced open reveals layer after layer of diverse musical tastes ranging from disco, northern soul, prog, punk, metal, pop and everything in-between. You wanted a hit? Well here’s ten of them. Jamie Muir
