AlunaGeorge - I Remember

AlunaGeorge
I Remember
2016
Spotify

For many people the career of Aluna George has been a bit of a let down. In 2013 the UK duo was poised to take the world by storm with their infectious blend of pop, electronic and EDM. Their debut album however disappointed the the duo stumbled through trying to take all their influences and make them somewhat cohesive. The groups influences are so varied and so wide open that almost anything can slip in to their tracks and surprise you, but for most of this new record I Remember you can feel them stumbling on trying to fuse their music in to one fist. Sometimes they are able to pull it off while others result in some what confusing mashups. One of the more successful songs is "Not Above Love" which is rich and vibrant with some of those infectious hooks that make you want to sing along. However that same focus on hooks gives us the tropical house inspired "Hold Your Head High" which in a word is basic. They are simply borrowing from the genre but not expanding upon it, not making it their own or adding something that would really make it great. The trend continues on "Mean What I Mean" which features a decent set of bars from LeiKeli47 and Dreezy but is just more tropical house inspired pop that Thomas Jack stopped playing years ago. "I'm In Control" so sounds so much like a Britney Spears song that I had to check the liner notes that make sure she did not slip in as a feature somehow.

The title track is really the one inventive track that really shows that AlunaGeorge still have that potential, but it even ends abruptly leaving you wondering just where the track could have gone. "Mediator" which borders almost on the slow jam territory is perhaps the most boring on the entire record. It comes and goes without any recognition from both the band and the listener. The last few tracks on the album are definnitely their attempt at some more bubblegum pop type songs, but they simply fall flat right from the beginning. The final track "Wanderlust" really is their most inventive, and has an identity that the duo could really latch on to it is just sad that we have to wait until the very end of the album for them to finally find their footing. As a whole this album really feels like ALunaGeorge are still struggling to define themselves and their sound and the scattershot approach is cleary not one that is going to work for them. Still a band in progress this is not the best, nor the last we are going to hear from AlunaGeorge.

4.5 out of 10