Undeniably mainstream, but ahead of her Glastonbury headline slot, the north London British-Albanian megastar’s third LP is cleverly crafted, classy, catchy synth-pop, channelling funk, disco and Latin grooves about an up-and-down love life. The latter style is instantly recognisably on the smooth opener End Of An Era, one that sets the pattern and theme of the album - constantly renewed optimism between disappointment. There’s an impressive team of co-writers and production team, her usual co-writer Caroline Ailin Kevin Parker, whose rock-pop chops come from Tame Impala, Tobias Jesso Jr (Adele, Harry Styles) and Caroline Polachek collaborator Danny L Harle. Houdini is synth pop lead single as well as the skip-beat formula of Illusion, but the album really seems to kick in with the disco toe-tapper Training Season, an Abba-echoing critique of bad boyfriends. These Walls opens with rippling piano and and catchy bittersweet chorus (“If these walls could talk they’d tell us to break up”), while French Exit fuses hot-night Latin acoustic guitar with disco beat and swooning violins. There’s nothing radical about any of this, but it’s done extremely well. Out on Warner Records.
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