AlunaGeorge: Body Music

By Alif Omar Mahfix • 16 Oct 2013 in Review

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FUTURE POP
It’s not meant to be ironic, we suppose, but today’s musicians categorised as future pop – often bedroom electronic tinkerers – have an affinity for what constituted as future pop back in the late ‘90s, early ‘00s. For duo AlunaGeorge, it was Timbaland’s and the Neptunes’ early production works, unfortunately this led to one too many erroneous claims that AlunaGeorge is something of a TLC-era throwback – their sound is actually decidedly anti-nostalgic.

More indebted to glitch, UK 2-step, and the bedroom producer scene, Body Music follows the cue of their numerous singles released previously, doubles their amount – you’ve probably heard nearly half of this record before – and then puts sheer focus on what they want to accomplish. It’s as slick as a major label debut can get, if there were one obviously weak track, it’d be the only track that actually tries to be ‘90s; their cover of ‘This is How We Do It’ (which is a bonus track to begin with).

Elsewhere, George’s production and Aluna’s vocals continue what they’ve established since the release of ‘You Know You Like It’. Not all hit the same pitch perfect pop note of that single, but we can’t say there are any bad tracks either. Admirably, a few of these new tracks do subvert our expectation of AlunaGeorge, such as with ‘Friends to Lovers’, their first attempt at balladry. In fact, listening to it got us thinking that Aluna does kind of sound late ‘90s – she has the same warped nasally vocals of r’n’b acts like Tweet and Aaliyah.

LISTEN TO: ‘You Know You Like It’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: Kate Boy
RATING: 3.5