Album Review: Conscious

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With the follow up to their 2014 debut album Evergreen, Broods are back again with another collection of the moody, atmospheric, dance-pop that gained them their notoriety.

Conscious is a straight up beast of an album. Contrasting, contemplative, at times euphoric-but with a twisty, dark edge .

The sister-brother duo have definitely stepped their game up production wise, the vocals are more dynamic and varied between songs but maintain a clarifying sense of cohesion throughout the album.

The collection opens with the well-received single Free, before moving on to We Had Everything a contrasting upbeat rhythm, killer hook, soaring chorus and oddly lamenting lyrics (my favourite piece off the album).

Hold The Line has a Drake-ish vibe to start with that took me by surprise, but moves into a pretty straight, solid pop feel by the end of the first verse. And the use of call and response and layered vocals in the chorus is pretty amazing.

Freak Of Nature features Tove Lo and starts as a slower piece – a little withdrawn, touching vaguely on themes of longing for the past, home and a taxing mental state. Georgia’s vocals meld so well with Tove’s, it’s a wee bit of a match made in heaven.

In fact, Freak Of Nature is probably the best example off the album of Broods’ overall writing, music and tone taking on aspects of Scandinavian pop –

Couldn’t Believe reminded me a lot of NONONO and there were instances across the album where Georgia’s vocals made me think of Robyn or Lykke Li. The tone and production lend themselves to that polished-but-sparse style.

Overall a brilliant, well thought out and masterfully produced second album.