AlunaGeorge - I Remember

Rating:

It all adds up to AlunaGeorge’s definitive work so far.

AlunaGeorge’s 2013 debut ‘Body Music’, while containing a bucket load of bangers and generating the buzz of a lorry load of bees didn’t quite catch on in the way you feel it should or that the multi-talented duo of singer and lyricist Aluna Francis and producer George Reid deserved. Since then there’s been prominent hook ups, remixes and feature slots but AlunaGeorge have slightly faded. Fortunately, second album ‘I Remember’ is full of dazzling future pop to propel them back into the pop ascendancy.

The formula here is very simple but beautifully executed. AlunaGeorge have cut back on all fat and excess producing an album full of clever, lucid and insidious pop hooks. They’ve cleverly stripped back some of the sounds while creating impression that there’s more going on than ever as exemplified on the rousing party jam of single ‘Mean What I Mean’ and the bursting chorus of ‘Heartbreak Horizon’.

There’s guest vocalists and rappers featured on AlunaGeorge’s music for the first time, most notably Popcaan on ‘I’m In Control’ but even the biggest star couldn’t shift the focus away for Aluna Francis who shines as a songwriter on a collection of genuinely impressive songs. It’s an album that works just as well in the club or experienced in more sedate atmospheres. Best of all is the strong and strident confidence of ‘Not About Love’ and the classy strut of opener ‘Full Swing’.

There’s more diversity and ambition at work here, which gives the album lasting variety beyond the pure bangers. It all adds up to AlunaGeorge’s definitive work so far. Martyn Young