Alchemy

About

Disclosure’s <i>Alchemy</i> marks a double milestone. Not only does the Lawrence brothers’ fourth album arrive shortly after the 10th anniversary of their debut <i>Settle</i>, it also represents the UK duo’s first album with no features and no sample. That might seem like a major shift for an act that has offered a dance-pop platform to voices like Sam Smith, Lorde, and Miguel while mining classic R&B and 2-step garage for creative inspiration. But <i>Alchemy</i> proves Disclosure more than capable of holding their own as singers and songwriters at the same time that it takes them back to their roots in body-moving dance music. Newly liberated from their previous label contract, Disclosure began writing the album in 2022 after wrapping their <i>ENERGY</i> tour, and a distinct air of freedom permeates the record’s slippery rhythms and effervescent chord. They worked separately, with Guy newly married and living in Los Angeles and Howard nursing a breakup back in London—an experience of heartbreak that helps account for a pervading air of melancholy in songs like “Looking for Love” and “We Were in Love,” even while the grooves are as buoyant as anything in Disclosure’s career to date. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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