Disclosure - ‘ENERGY’ Review

Brotherly electro/house duo Disclosure have released their third LP “Energy” since “Caracal” back in 2015. Although a substantial amount of fans were left disappointed with Caracal, with the majority of its tracks taking the softer, radio play approach. This was definitely brought out with their vocal features such as Sam Smith and The Weeknd. 

Compared to their debut single “Settle”, This album definitely lacked its UK garage and house excitement the brothers first brought to the fans. Disclosure’s new LP attempts to bring back elements of their upbeat and vitality house style with a fusion of synthetic glitz disco. 

Tracks such as, “Watch Your Step” and, “Ecstasy” embrace the fun and simplistic rhythmic house chords underlined with bouncy solid bass lines that meander through the percussion. The album's impressive, hard- hitting, abrasive juxtaposition, “My High” features fierce vocals from UK rapper Slowthai and American rapper Aminé which creates a powerful feeling of being indefatigable. Scattered throughout the LP Disclosure implements global influences with the use of samples from West African and South American roots with tracks such as “Mali Mali”, “Tondo” and “Energy” which are packed full of interesting percussive and rhythmic elements stemming from Latin and afrobeat genres that work well with their electronic production. 

Unfortunately there were a few tracks on the album which began to let the LP down such as “Ce n’est pas” which starts strong with its retro 808 drum sound but is sadly ruined with weak vocals. Additionally “Talk” feels as though it should have been on their previous, more pop album.

Although the majority of the tracks are enjoyable, as a whole the album provokes the feeling that you are listening to different electronic artists who created a mixtape without telling each other what style to go for, an overall mismatch of identities that sadly makes the album collapse like a frustrating game of Jenga. This is unfortunate as I thoroughly enjoyed their house/disco tracks and the world music fusion they incorporated but these styles would have worked better as two different projects.

Max Facchinello

@maxfacchinello

Image: Disclosure album cover