As Jungle, the London-based duo Tom McFarland and Joshua Lloyd-Watson make feelgood music that’s firmly rooted prior to now. within the Mark Ronson faculty of manufacturing slick, digitized variations of disco and soul, they earned a Mercury prize nomination for his or her eponymous 2014 debut
, and have since produced hit singles such because the strings-laden Busy Earning’ and the funk-inflected Keep Moving. Constantly upbeat and supremely industrial, Jungle’s tunes have made for energetic stay exhibits in addition to good background fodder for adverts by world manufacturers like Peloton.
Their fourth album, Volcano, continues the theme, with head-nodding 70s fbreak beatseats (Dominoes), wistful, guitar-strumming soul (Again on 74) and euphoric disco choruses (Each Evening), all ripe for radio play. It’s confidently produced, however Jungle’s consistency leaves theirsanitizedanitised, missing the grit and craving emotion that makes disco and soul so enduring. There are gestures in direction of one thing deeper – rapper Roots Manuva rattling his baritone on the finish of You Ain’t No Celeb, or the cruel, thumping bass of Holding On – however largely, Volcano trades on Jungle’s identical, protected components. There’s little new within the nostalgia of those 14 tracks.