Oliver - Full Circle

Oliver
Full Circle
2017
Spotify

The LA based electronic duo are back with this new record filled to the brim with Disco and Funky dance vibes perfect for those end of summer blues. Things kick into overdrive during the middle of the second song "Ottomatic" when it shifts into full Daft Punk big bold Disco ready to take on the world. The feeling really engages on "Chemicals" sung by MNDR as she worms her way through a track that is always shifting and changing. It almost feels like Justice lite and MNDR is at her absolute best here. Their other features are also names that people in the indie dance world will know with Elohim, Chromeo, Leon Else and a surprise feature from De La Soul. However there are times where Oliver feel like they don;t go far enough, don't push the sound to bigger levels. The track with De La Soul "Heart Attack" has this great womp and De La Soul deliver a performance far better than their last album would have indicated, yet it still feels like something is missing. There is no crescendo, no huge moment where everything drops and you feel fully immersed in the song. There is always this distance with Oliver's music, kind of like Daft Punk in a way, where they keep you at an arms length never fully letting you in. Yet the opening moments of each of their tracks is always the best, this promise of something grand to come even if they don't always hit the bar they set for themselves. "One" opens with this great line but then descends into straight synthwave jam that never really goes anywhere, it just sort of hangs around not making much of an impact.

On the tracks without features the duo tend to go a bit further and push the sound, but still not enough. It may be the light disco touch that keeps them reined in, but it doesn't need to. Each track seems to fade away with a whimper, never really leaving that long lasting impact. "Light Years Away" one of the groups biggest hits is so big sounding and breaks down anything that stands in it's way, but there is not of that on Full Circle, just the occasional flashes of brilliance. "Electrify" sounds so much like light years away, like so much that it is really hard to take seriously even though it is quite good. If the rest of the album sounded like this it would be a totally different story, but it just doesn't. "At Night" is a welcome bright spot late in the album but by this time you have had to get through so much it does not even really feel worth it anymore. I like Oliver I really do, but this is just not their best record and misses so many marks. Perhaps the EP is a more palatable environment for them but for now Full Circle is not the one.

6.2 out of 10