Review: Disclosure's 'Energy' a Full Body Experience

Praise those beats per minutes! On their latest album, the British buds Howard and Guy Lawrence, known to the EDM devotees as Disclosure are proving that although there's a global pandemic in effect, that's no reason to lower the volume. In fact, you wouldn't even get the impression a lockdown is in effect, on "ENERGY" the beats are real and the throttle is set to full speed ahead. Ebbing with major dance beats and slower funk thrills, this is an album that's guaranteed to result in a full body experience.

When the dance producers paired up with Sam Smith on 2015's "Omen" and delivered on one of the season's most melodic hits, they proved that their approach to electronic dance music was derived from a desire to imbue synth-pop sounds with heart and soul. "ENERGY" goes the distance and is a perfectly manufactured opus to all forms of dance music genres. Kicking things off with "Watch Your Step" featuring Kelis is a perfect way to set the mood – no wallflowers here! Everybody get to the dance floor and show us what you got!

A joyful blend of pure vocal adulation and auto-tune lead a very catchy and full of frills tune that will widen your smile and have you working your milkshake! "Lavender" featuring Channel Tres is an unprecedented pulse-pounder that will have all the Jersey Boys fist-pumping and jumping up and down. Disclosure's signature production which never threatens to overpower the lyrical arrangements, marries perfectly especially on the very ethereal-feeling "Who Knew" spotlighting Mick Jenkins sorrowful sounds, while Fatoumata Diawara go full out on "Douha (Mali Mali)."

Even when the pair decide to take things down a notch, they ease us into the groove with their "Fractal" (Interlude) and into the sultry "Ce n'est pas" with Blick Bassy, they immediately pump up the party with the Brazilian samba of the album's title track "ENERGY." This is without one of the setlist's most inspiring tracks, able to revitalize the music festival circuit boy in all of us. Find an open air area, a terrace, or a roof top and just dance your a** off to this track! Your soul will thank you!

It's not always about raising the roof; the rhythms on "ENERGY" transmute between dance heavy to pure R&B as best exhibited on "Birthday" featuring Khelani & Syd. The soulful vocals bring the synth-pulse of the groovy track to a whole new level emerging as a heavy-breathing dance floor tune that will undoubtedly lead to some sweating, and that's when Common comes in. The feisty lyricist beautifully dictates the poetic muscle of the album's closer, "Reverie." It perfectly helps to bring the levels down and sedates the mood, energetically coming full circle.

"ENERGY" by Disclosure
available on CD and Digital music platforms
$10.99