AlunaGeorge

Body Music (Island)

12/20

Body Music casts London based producer/singer duo AlunaGeorge as explorers of a turn-of-the-century R&B wormhole. George Reid – the control room operator –tightens the bolts that Timberland left unscrewed, while Aluna Francis – the pilot – veers their spacecraft towards the populist via her Aaliyah/Kelis-isms until they crash land at their desired destination: the forefront of commercial UK bass music.

It’s often said that relationships are a two way street, requiring both parties to work in tandem in order to succeed. The dynamic of AlunaGeorge, however, is one of sole trouser wearing that rarely challenges the conformability of their more regularly visited gloss-pop sensibilities. Such is the case with single Your Drums, Your Love, where Reid attempts to conjure shape shifting, androgynous belches only to be drowned out by Francis infantile coo of one of the catchiest choruses this side of Disclosure. Sure, the two-step swag of Lost And Found hovers close to Hudson Howhawke’s flashy go-ape-shit delinquency, and the bubblegum refrain of single You Know You Like It ensures that there’s just enough bite to chew the fat. But too many times, Body Music falls flat on its face due to a deficiency in AlunaGeorge’s formula: the succinct lack of banger-mongering on the part of Reid.

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Words: Joshua Nevett