In a January 2013 interview with The Guardian, Aluna Francis, the vocal half of the electronic pop duo AlunaGeorge, described their music as “fat beats with songs on top.” After the duo’s 2012 debut EP, You Know You Like It, Francis’ description was accurate, but following the drop of their debut album, Body Music, the British electronic pop duo — made up of Francis and producer George Reid — have shown, in full force, that AlunaGeorge is much more than that. Body Music offers all of the “fat beats” and beautiful vocals that we heard on You Know You Like It combined with elements of R&B, more interesting production and even more electrifying songs. It’s unclear when the last great electronic R&B-pop album was released — or whether that’s even a real genre — but AlunaGeorge’s Body Music surely is the best in a long while.
Body Music is full of emotion and power, brought out in Francis’s high-pitched yet dynamic vocals and Reid’s straightforward yet remarkably elastic production. The album plays like it was produced by R&B and electronic veterans who have somehow managed to take old love-song themes — unrequited love, volatile relationships and broken hearts — and transform them into something new, exciting and fun. But Body Music isn’t a falling-in-love album, and it certainly isn’t a breakup album. It’s much more of a fall-in-love and a get-back-together and a realize-how-shitty-you-are-really-are-but-I-am-still-in-love-with-you kind of album. It’s an album that walks you through someone’s thoughts as they fall in love with a best friend, break up, get back together again, gain self-confidence and go through all of the other emotions that nearly everybody has experienced during a relationship.
And, even better, the mood of the music accurately fits the emotion that a character would be feeling. Francis’s voice produces such sadness in “Outlines” that you can almost imagine her crying while singing it. The production and vocals on “Best Be Believing” are so upbeat and fun that you can imagine Francis finally standing up for herself and leaving the person she had fallen in love with on “Friends to Lovers.”
If you’ve purchased the album, then you know that Body Music comes with a bonus track. It’s a cover of Montell Jordan’s classic R&B hit “This is How We Do It.” While AlunaGeorge have recorded some pretty phenomenal covers, like Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” and “I Wanna Be Like You” from Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” their cover of “This is How We Do It” misses the mark. It’s an interesting idea, but it’s a cover that will lose you 30 seconds into the song (which is really unfortunate, because it’s about time that we get a good cover the late ’90s backyard party anthem).
Disappointing bonus track aside, Body Music does something very important for the emerging electro-pop duo: It solidifies their skill, raising them above hype and noise of Internet music blogs. While their This is How We Do It EP may have raised many eyebrows, Body Music has carved out a definite place for the future of AlunaGeorge as a respectable act. Where other progressive electronic artists may be rejected as “too weird” or “too experimental” for mass audiences, AlunaGeorge straddles the line between progressive electronic music, traditional pop and R&B, giving them the ability to become massively successful. Perhaps most importantly, Body Music isn’t a difficult album to like. It’s not an album that will take you a few listens to get into. Francis and Reid have given us an album that is, from beginning to end, electrifying and fun.
Contact Samuel Avishay at [email protected].