Album per day: Day 9

Artist: Disclosure
Album: Settle
Released: 2013

Surrey dance brothers Disclosure have been brewing up a storm since the release of their debut effort Settle. They've made splashes in the UK and most of Europe, but they've also found a home across the pond; Settle was nominated for a Grammy, acknowledging their growing fanbase over there. Their music isn't particularly aggressive like The Prodigy or Chase and Status, but the chilled atmosphere created by their music appeals to a wide audience who seek out a more calming influence to dance to.
After a minute long introduction track, When A Fire Starts To Burn kicks things off. It gets annoying very quickly, with repetitive and irritating lyrics, and unfortunately, the music is no more captivating. Latch invites Sam Smith to the party on lead vocals, and considering he's been shoved in our faces over the last twelve months, I imagined I'd find myself disliking it. This was not the case though. The house influence on this track is calming, but still danceable,  and Sam Smith's voice surprisingly fits in. F For You was familiar to me from the soundtrack to FIFA 14, and it was always one of those songs that I never wanted to skip. You couldn't turn on the radio in 2013 without being exposed to White Noise, much like Sam Smith, but I didn't particularly mind hearing it, with vocals being supplied by electronic music duo AlunaGeorge. The addictive club sound combined with catchy vocals makes for a chart humper, which is the status it ultimately achieved (it hit no.2 in the UK charts).
Defeated No More called to mind the synths and claps of Deadmau5, incorporating more of a house vibe, and Edward MacFarlane matches Sam Smith's performance on Latch with his octave-bending vocals. As you can tell, there are quite a few collaborations on Settle, which makes me wonder if dance acts can't get by without guest appearances on every song. There are a few independent songs, but I would like to see Disclosure do more of them on their next record. Grab Her! may be five minutes long, but it sounds lazy and lackadaisical - it needed to be cut down.
The final four tracks all featured guest vocalists. You & Me features Eliza Doolittle, who seems to have gone off the radar recently. Nonetheless, for Doolittle's vocal talents, this song doesn't distinguish itself enough from many of the others on Settle. The same synths are used, the same vocals effects are used etc. The rest of these collaborations don't do much else to differentiate themselves from their fellow songs on this album; there is no individual stamp that the guest vocalist brings to each song. I was intrigued to hear their collaboration with London Grammar, which was one of the brighter sparks of the collaborated efforts, mixing Grammar's soothing, definitely-heard-them-on-Made-In-Chelsea sounds with Disclosure's recognisable dance-pop.
The first record for an act is never supposed to be perfect; there's supposed to be mistakes and signs of immaturity and naivety. Most of the titans of the music world never had a perfect first album, but they learned from it and saw what they could do to improve on their future outputs. I think Disclosure are a good example of that. They may not quite reach the heights of some of the other acts in their genre, but there will always be a fanbase for what they put out. I tend to think that when artists peak too quickly, there is a great amount of pressure placed on them, and they tend to crumble and not deliver in the future, ultimately fading into obscurity. Whether that happens with Disclosure remains to be seen, and I wonder if the dreaded "second album syndrome" will rear its ugly head.

Rating: 6/10
Recommended songs: Latch, F For You