Album Review - Jungle: Loving in Stereo
With live music and its venues in need of some post-pandemic Feng Shui, Jungle have emerged from the wilderness, ready to hang their shiniest disco ball yet from the ceiling.
It’s better to view Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland as two functioning parts of a fully-formed hype machine, rather than lead singers of a band. Since their breakthrough in 2014, Jungle have bravely operated in rare musical spaces, corners of the industry usually reserved for disco and soul merchants, for the 70’s and the 80’s, for Chic and Imagination.
That summer they drip-fed us electro-funk and faceless falsettos to soundtrack music videos that were effectively high energy dance routines. Their identity remained hidden, known simply throughout the industry as ‘J’ and ‘T’ and so, naturally, the music world wanted more.
Each release generated anticipation but also left people wondering how they could know so little about its creators in an information age. How much longer would they hide behind the smoke and mirrors of a 6-year-old breakdancer?
Seven years on, there are names and faces, even visual interviews, a full live band and sold-out shows to go with the music. And now, a new album.
Loving in Stereo feels largely like a back to basics record, abandoning the more considered approach taken on a sophomore record that embraced LA and personal heartbreak. A case could be made for the latest release being a retread of old ground but there’s enough within it to suggest that sometimes that can be a winning formula. After all, if the recipe was that palatable in the first place, why tinker with the ingredients now?
However, this isn’t Jungle standing still, far from it. The production feels bigger and for the first time, there are collaborations with other artists. There’s also a guitar-driven pop song (Truth).
Loving in Stereo opens gently. ‘Dry your tears’ gives space for us and the record to take flight. A haunting string arrangement slowly builds and then hovers meaningfully over an echoed mantra; “Dry your tears, don’t cry, I’ll be here this time…”. It all feels significant, like a pregnant pause between albums pre and post-pandemic.
The wall of sound is carried into track two, the album’s lead single, ‘Keep moving” but it’s pierced early on by Jungle trademarks.
The falsettos are feverish, acting as war cries to rally a public that’s so long been deprived of joy. Sirens screech menacingly overhead and you get the sense that some kind of soul storm is brewing. It arrives and sounds enormous, thrusting us into pumped-up worlds of dance halls and soul train line dances. It’s bass and synth-heavy and a reminder that the good times are almost back.
It’s Jungle at their best. Simple lyrics and an omnipresent groove. It’s the Shepherd Bush duo’s way of telling us that when you’ve gotta dance, you’ve gotta dance.
What follows feels like the perfect high-octane response. “All Of The Time” is fully charged and ready to see out the summer. It’s radiant and starry-eyed disco.
Momentum, momentarily, is lost on “Romeo”, a hip-hop track steered by Bas. It’s sun-soaked but is crucially let down by the melody and a delivery that resembles something closer to a Rizzle Kicks tune.
But where that collaboration falls short, another excels and might be the crown jewel in a record that glistens with gems.
“Goodbye My Love” is the slow dance, the moment under the disco ball with your school crush. Priya Ragu is seductive and soulful in her role as the end of the night storyteller. She’s both Lauryn Hill and Aaliyah in one go. It’s beautiful and should really close the album.
At the other end of the spectrum, “Fire” is a space-age, LSD trip fuelled by percussion, funk guitars, synth and walkie-talkie vocals stuck in a time loop, playing the same hypnotic hook over and over. It’s bold. It also acts as the perfect precursor for the breathless “Talk About It”. Feel-good never felt so good.
Loving In Stereo is Jungle very close to their best again. The party catalysts are still there but this time they’re joined by a stellar support cast of R&B ballads and neo-soul croons. It’s both a throwback and a throw forward.
As doors re-open across the country and people scrabble for dancing shoes that had been left by the front door for the last year and a half, Jungle have a brand of music that will be welcomed back with open arms.