i’m not a clever enough writer to sustain a thread like this singlehandedly though. so the more people post their impressions the better.
only if you insist:
Myron- Get Down
Complete warm sensuality. The vocals, and those white noise swooshes are very breathy. Sublime pillow talk. Idealised intimacy. (The voice is a girl’s, not Myron’s in my mind).
Stone Cold
2step is the slickest, funkiest music ever and the beat on this is testament to that. Makes me feel so confident . The drums are arresting, but not just physically, they arrest your ego. They compel it. Inflate it. Like when a girl is very clearly enamoured with you. When she’s properly hungry for you.
I usually pick up on that alienation and the trauma of Aaliyah, but not today for some reason. Absolutely making me feeling like a legend.
Destiny
Too nostalgic. Too emotional. Can't listen to it.
Gabriel
Golden. Warm. Communal (particular memories of groups of Bermondsey girls bellowing this out in unison).
Also memories of a stillness in the midst of people. Being at a party or something and it comes and there’s a serenity that descends upon the proceedings.
I’m not usually one for lyrics, but totally buy into this. Rippling pentacostalsim. “Just release yourself to the love that’s holding you”.
Those horns are transcendental. Not from the mortal realm but rather emitted from the heavens like beams of light.
Bump n Grind
Pure, unadulterated, uncontained, unconfined, exuberant joy. Every day in 1998 was bright sunshine and clear blue skies.
Hold On
A feisty, fiery bird. She’s got a verbal and emotional muscularity. Leanness. Battle hardened and battle ready.
All of which is outrageously charming. All of which done with an insatiable twinkle in her eye.
Delicious.
When I Fall In Love
Another one where it does what it says on the tin. I’m completely buying into the lyrics. Why must I be a teenager in love? That’s the vocals.
It’s got that woozy dreamy quality underneath.
Then it’s pure London when the bass comes in. 90’s London. The 90's that Reynolds learned to say bizznizz in.
Body Groove
Absolute fun. Children’s party fun. Pink wafers. Musical statues. Pass the parcel.
702
Hauntingly poignant. Nakedly vulnerable. This isn’t pillow talk intimacy, it’s far more than that. Its an intimacy that allows you to be there in her moment of grief. For her to be completely and openly wounded with you. And for the time being all you can do is hold her, kiss her on the head and tell her it’ll get better one day.
Shola Ama
Hyper love. Turbo-charged affection. If your soul could smile. kodwo eshwun's cyborg erection (or "electrection" as he'd call it).
Its rare that you get happiness in music devoid of melancholy. Just unadulterated happiness. But this- like the bump and grind one- does just that.
And does so in a way that’s not cloying or childish in the way you’d get in hardcore for example. In emotional terms its adult hardcore (to coin a phrase).