It’s her name. And then his name. At least they didn’t go with FrancisReid…
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[6.44]
Jonathan Bogart: The problem with doing pop music for Martians is that Earthlings have to listen to it.
[6]
Will Adams: The consensus comp for AlunaGeorge’s electroslick is 90s R&B, but “Your Drums, Your Love” strikes me more as a Zero 7 song with a heaping portion of extra bleeps. This mainly comes from the deflated sample; its last intonation of “drummmmsss” wavers as it clings to the music. Aluna Francis’ lower register is missing the somber husk necessary to carry the verses to the chorus, which only reaches a fraction of its full potential. Thank God for the sample to pick up the slack.
[6]
Brad Shoup: This is actually pretty trad R&B, intro’d phonemes aside. I keep expecting those fluttering synths to solidify into P-funk, but that’s the wrong part of the decade. Shame this tune doesn’t know how to properly plug the chorus in.
[6]
Mallory O’Donnell: The yearning is there, but the love? Not really feeling it. Just feeling kind of squishy. Maybe that was the intent? I guess squishy might be a bit underrepresented in our cosmos. Do we have a squishy category? Do we have categories?
[5]
Anthony Easton: As lonely as anything I’ve heard in recent memory. Not only the vaguely futuristic soundtrack, but the electronically manipulated vocals, begging and admitting (in both an aesthetic and personal sense) that she cannot make music or make love to the same quality as the partner expects — and then the “not waving but drowning” message through the rest of it.
[9]
Iain Mew: It’s funny alongside the Rustie ft. AlunaGeorge track that this one is the one which sounds more like someone from the outside has taken it and remixed it. The distorted repetition of “your drums”, a picture of sad incomprehension, is the best and most memorable moment. There’s a better R&B pop song there than for their last single too, but the production trickery is still doing the bulk of the work.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: Oh, I’m absolutely smitten with the opening of this song… the rippling synths, the slowed-down vocals, the droplets of a beat. Everything still sounds good when the full beat kicks in, but once the regular singing starts, “Your Drums, Your Love” become an above-average piece of downtempo R&B. Which is still good, but the gorgeous minimalism of those first few seconds sticks with me more.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The manipulated intro vocals lose their novelty quickly, but just when Aluna Francis’ lead also threaten to drift away the recombitant beats and, yes, those manipulated vocals create an interesting if not quite compelling form of mutant R&B.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: If only as much energy was expended on the story as the track twiddling. Sufficient drums, insufficient love.
[6]