Disclosure — Alchemy — Album Review
Electronic | Dance
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
As many people around my age might have experienced as well, the Reigate-born brothers and electronic dance duo known as disclosure did occupy a small chunk of my musical teenhood. And as far as commercial dance music went at the time, I can probably speak for a lot of people when I state that they definitely brought a unique flavour to the table.
Through soulful melodies and iconic feature inputs, it didn’t take too long at all for Disclosure to stand out in the eyes of the public in the same way they did for myself. To this day, their 2013 debut album Settle stands as only only one of the best dance records, but one of the best debut records of the decade that it features in.
Following the release of that incredible debut, we had 2015’s Caracal as their sophomore (which I personally believe is quite an underrated album). And following a five-year gap, we finally got the third album from the duo in the form of ENERGY, another great record that I greatly enjoyed, as per my rather positive review of said record.
But here we are now in 2023, a full decade after the release of Disclosure’s first album, and the two have brought out what is now their fourth studio album in their discography, named Alchemy.
I thought initially that the fact that I discovered Alchemy completely out of the blue was just an oversight on my side. However, it turns out that, by the looks of it, everything on Alchemy was completely fresh upon its release.
And as if the prospect of listening to an entire album’s worth of brand new music wasn’t exciting enough, Alchemy had quite the interesting backstory behind it. Following Disclosure’s departure from major record label, that being Universal Music respectively. This album serves as a celebration of sorts when it comes to the creative freedom granted to the two brothers. On top of that, both brothers were working on the album from two different sides of the globe. And that could only mean one thing; there were going to be a lot of different creative inspirations being pumped into this album.
Upon listening to Alchemy for the first time, that sentiment felt incredibly apparent. It did definitely feel like Disclosure were exploring tonnes of different avenues on this record, and yet, there is also a high element of accessibility lacing this record as well.
It’s honestly a shame that the weather over here in the UK isn’t quite living up to the summer we were all hoping for, as this album carries those vibes in spades. Each and every one of the tracks on here carry that sense of warmth that is essential for any good EDM record.
In short, Alchemy yet again proves that Disclosure are still yet to release a bad record. Whilst ultimately, there are other projects they have done that I do enjoy more currently, there is certainly a lot of praise I have for the duo’s fourth outing.
Favourite Tracks: Looking For Love | Higher Than Ever Before | Go The Distance
Apollo Records | AWAL Recordings
