Disclosure - ENERGY ALBUM REVIEW

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Everyone has that one song that just happened to be on the radio during their childhood. For me, it was “Latch” by Disclosure, a British house duo. They didn’t handle the vocals, though. That went to Sam Smith, who might just ascend to their fifth gender within the next few years. “Latch” was all over the place, and that was the song that got me into dance music. That song was on their 2013 debut album Settle, and then when their next album Caracal came out two years later, it just didn’t feel the same. Yes, Sam Smith was on this album too. Then, after a whopping five years and two EPs, Disclosure is back in the studio for ENERGY, a brand new album that takes inspiration from world music to make a new sound in the mainstream house genre. Let’s get into ENERGY and see exactly what I mean.

ENERGY is a house album with UK garage, R&B, disco, African pop, Afrobeats, and soul vibes. Let the record show that for the first half of this album, I was dancing in my seat. The first half of this is such a great vibe, and I’m absolutely in love. The Kelis-featuring opener “Watch Your Step” feels like an unearthed Aaliyah track, the Aminé-slowthai combo is killer on “My High,” and the bright and colorful “Douha (Mali Mali)” with Fatoumata Diawara might be one of my favorite house tracks in a long time. I do think that the second half drags on a little bit, but it might just be me. “Fractal (Interlude)” feels like a song that’d be perfect for a ‘beats to relax/study to,’ the newest single “Birthday” is a seductive and sexy duet from Kehlani and Syd ended up underwhelming me just by a little bit, and the French-language track “Ce n’est pas” didn’t wow me like I was hoping it would. Who knows, maybe I was just in the mood to dance. You never know what tomorrow could bring, though…

ENERGY is definitely a return to form for Disclosure after Caracal. They needed the time off, and it looks like that time paid off. ENERGY is laced with beats from ass-shakers to sleepy and has quite a big number of majestic and chilling vocal performances. In this age of quarantine, ENERGY would be the album that plays in clubs in an alternate timeline. While I didn’t enjoy every single thing about this album, I had a good enough time that I’d come back to it at some point.


7/10


Stream ENERGY here

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