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Ali Love : Love Harder

AliLoveLoveHarder

 

 

Released : 9th August


Label : Backyard Recordings

 

 

Ali Love has by no means had it easy. Having risen to critical acclaim thanks to solid early singles, debut album Love Music was completed but never released, before he was promptly dropped by his record label. Two years on and Love Harder serves as the first collective for the London synthster, but for all the effort there is little to suggest it fulfils his early promise. 

 

More retro at times than a vintage space hopper, Love relies on an eighties affinity for his tracks to work. From the pulsing synths and wavy falsetto of “Dark Star” to the sustain and drum machined beats of “Talk To Tokyo”, there is a clear sense of nostalgia embedded within the album. 

 

Not that this is a problem, everyone loves a bit of nostalgia, but it begins to be when there is little else to accompany it. The rather flat “Moscow Girl” has good intentions but fails to develop into anything more than a functional dance track, whilst the likes of “Show Me” seem, for all it's bassy protests, unfortunately contrived and somewhat shallow.

 

When Love aims for a streak of individuality, the results are impressive. Second single and flagship track “Smoke & Mirrors” brings a crunchier, modern edge to some eighties electronica complete with a chorus that would no doubt impress any dance aficionado, whilst “Done The Dirty” is a catchy , light-hearted number of simple charm. It is the eponymous opener “Love Harder” that impresses the most however. Building in ominous fashion to a slow yet determined beat, Love takes his time and creates a track of consideration and an infectious nature. 

 

 It should have been a building block, but instead “Love Harder” the single works as an example of what Love Harder the album might have been. There is no shame in what it is; a solid enough, eighties tinged electro pop album. Yet it is hard not to feel that, if some fleeting examples are anything to go by, it could have been so much more.

 

Words : Dan Grose

 

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