Writing a new music blog and spending pretty much every spare second of my waking day obsessing about the stuff (and not just new and unsigned music, but all music from mainstream chart pop to obscure soundtrack albums from the past) probably gives me a certain level of ‘expertise’ in the subject. However, even experts get things wrong (although probably less so than non-experts).
AlunaGeorge is a classic example. After a string of blog adored early singles and featuring on plenty of end of year tip lists back at the end of 2012, the band's bubbly dance pop looked set to rule in 2013 and beyond. But for me Body Music, the debut album, was disappointing, lacking variation and becoming a tedious listen as a full length effort and their live shows lacked any sorted of charisma or genuine excitement. When I tried to sell a very little played copy of the album at a car boot sale, nobody would take it off my hands for even 20 pence. At that point I wrote AlunaGeorge off as a flash in the pan who would be forgotten in a year.
Cut forward to now and everything looks very different. I was very wrong. The hooky as a fishing line I’m In Control (featuring Popcaan) and I Remember were both killer tunes and the small part of their set that I caught at Glastonbury by chance whilst waiting to see Sigur Ros was like watching a different beast to the band I’d witnessed a few years ago – the show was very cool, delivered why mighty confidence and left a big smile on my face.
Now they're back with their third tune from their forthcoming second album also called I Remember. Mean What I Mean continues the trajectory of goodness. Finding the pair partnering with MCs Dreezy and Leikeli47 there's some hard hitting rap, Aluna singing a pretty melody and it's all underscored by the duo’s clever and once again catchy house pop production (I love those wonky sounding synth stabs). Quality vibrant pop.
Aluna George - Mean What I Mean
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