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Flo – Access All Areas
★★☆☆☆
“I’d like to introduce you to a trio of talented young ladies,” he intones evil star Cynthia Erivo at the start of her long-awaited debut Flo, Access All Areas. He went on to explain how “the agreement was formed” by the British pop group to continue in the vein of the girl bands before them: Destiny’s Child, Sugababes and “other good baddies of the month”. This album, Erivo promises, is “a meticulously prepared feast for the ears”.
The pact has been broken. AAA failed to conjure anything magical Erivo brings to his new fantasy film with Ariana Grande. However, the record is an overstuffed and underwhelming string of forgettable songs – no bangers or stirring torch songs between them. Bandmates Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer couldn’t replicate the sultriness of their US counterparts (Victoria Monet, Summer Walker, Kehlani) or the charisma of this year’s reigning pop queens (Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX).
Flo road to AAA has been rocky to say the least. They were formed in 2019 by Island Records A&R and attracted positive attention for their first “Cardboard Box”. In the same year, former Fifth Harmony star Normani led the R&B revival in the US; apparently Flo took the UK lead. Subsequent singles, though, have failed to chart – with the exception of last year’s “Fly Girl”, a collaboration with Missy Elliot that peaked at No. 38. In a recent interview, it was glaringly evident that the trio were struggling to assert their pop star identity. which can help them attract more fans. Quaresma was “funny”, they decided, while Downer was “very organized”. That label doesn’t exactly scream “stadium filler”.
Neither is the song itself. MNEK is a solid producer and does his best with some great harmonies on tracks such as “How Does It Feel” and “Bending My Rules”. Of course, they are all competent singers. But that’s about it. “Access All Areas” sees him stick to his common themes of love, longing, and heartbreak with hesitant lyrics. In “Soft”, he sings: “I’ll tell you what’s for dinner / I flow like a river.” There’s a nice switch-up thanks to some deft Spanish guitar-playing in “Caught Up”, but the song itself is a pale imitation of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name”. AAA it doesn’t give us the faintest hint of who the woman is – or why we should care. ROC
Shawn Mendes – Shawn
★★★☆☆
If an album is a chance for a pop star to tell his fans exactly, Shawn Mendes is honest “I don’t know who I am now,” the 26-year-old pop star says breathlessly on the opening track of her third record. It’s an acoustic sound by numbers, but with a heart-wrenching emotion.
In 2022, Mendes canceled his tour, citing mental health reasons; last month, he told fans he still “thinks about his sexuality” in response to the question mark that has dogged him since he released his first single a decade ago. When Mendes sings “I feel pressure from the people I love and hurt”, it is easy to empathise, so that you are brought together by the ebb and flow of a propulsive bounce of the people.
Other than Shawn less attractive. A collection of songs that combine familiar imagery and narrative tropes into a delightfully amorphous sonic journey; ride the lazy river you forget you are even on. He is the best strum and the best melody.
The album glows with the warmth of a campfire. And of course, Mendes makes a dreamy camp counselor, guitar sitting on his knee as he pumps out a stream of sleazy songs — the kind of forgettable that’s easy to hear on first listen (“Sweet is the sun / Warm rain / June month / Free day ”).
Like any camp counselor with a braided bracelet, there are glimpses of heartwarming honesty. “You can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mold,” he sings on “Mountain.” And later in “Why Why Why”, he calmly dropped a tabloid-worthy bombshell: “Thought I was going to be a father, shake me, I’m still a kid.” Her vulnerability is wonderful – if only her songs were half as daring. AN
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warm shower – Too much cold held back
★★★★☆
Warmduscher’s brilliant fifth album opens not with the Massachusetts image of frontman Clams Baker III, but with a Scottish burr. Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. He took a hit from the hallucinogenic drug DMT and gave up for a trip, seeing friends “from 500 miles away” and immersing himself in “a universal pool of beautiful energy”.
The journey is good to conclude Too much cold held backthe narrative itself is chaotic. Along with bandmates Benjamin Romans Hopcraft, Adam Harmer, Marley Mackey, Quinn Whalley and Bleu Ottis Wright, Baker draws listeners into a cacophony of South African punk-rock, funk, hip-hop, and gqom. There’s a playfulness to songs like “Pure at the Heart”, with whirring synths, bouncing beats and loose harmonies. Close “Grass in the Garden” example of cafe culture – the rattle of knives and forks, friends hollering at each other – through woozy brass and woodwind.
There’s plenty of bite, too. The dreaded “Fashion Week” sent a crowd of influencers: “Get new shoes!” Baker yelps in mock-admiration. “Fifty hours overtime, can’t sleep.” On “Staying Alive”, over snarling riffs and slinky drumbeats, he snaps: “You wonder why your kids are tall / Told to study, work, and go and fight / Away from your little background / Working three jobs just to talk. good night .”
In an interview with The IndependentBaker and Hopcraft described Warmduscher as a “party band”. It is a label that speaks to the raucousness of their musical approach, of course, but Too much cold held back it is also one of the most acute depictions of the 21st century this year. ROC
