Or maybe we’d prefer this 80s fusion song…
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[7.67]
Thomas Inskeep: Singer Eno Williams and her band of merry men fuse African sounds with new wave and techno — Highlife horns! “Pew pew”s! — and on “Give Me A Reason” craft a song with one foot in 2017 Lagos and its other in 1982 KROQ-listening Los Angeles. This moves like hell and is even funkier. A bonus point for their awesome name, too.
[9]
Juana Giaimo: “Give Me a Reason” is musically a song of euphoria — it’s edgy and so much fun! The synths give a retro style while the trumpets provide a smooth feeling, but the vocals have all the energy — as if calling you to join in to the party.
[7]
Anthony Easton: The build up/breakdown near the end of this is one of my favourite sounds of the year–I know that the PR material says clash, but this is a seamless machine.
[7]
Will Adams: This is the kind of cross-generational appeal — big band maximalism, nimble bass runs, modern percussive flourishes, some “Cars” doing circles around it all — that so many songs attempt in order to reach as wide an audience as possible but never reach this level of fun and effortlessness and ass-shaking glory.
[8]
Jessica Doyle: I have some quibbles with the execution: the mixing seems to put Eno Williams’s voice in competition with the guitars, so that (until the two enter into a dialogue, about two-thirds of the way through) I want to push one out of the way so I can hear the other better. The concept is fantastic.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Damn! Now this is fusion. Horns, synths, talking drums, whistles, and Lagos-raised singer Eno Williams’ peppy vocals mourn the abduction of 276 Chibok girls in 2014. I need a 12″ remix fast, and tell James Murphy to keep the fuck away.
[8]