Anyone that knows us knows that here in the Clean office, we are massive fans of FLO. It might come as a surprise that we waited this long to review their sophomore album THERAPY AT THE CLUB. Truth is, it took us a while to get into it. Stella, Jorja and Renée are talented women in their own right, but these three together make for absolute magic. We weren’t just going to give up on them simply because, at first listen, we weren’t blown away.
FLO’s debut album Access All Areas is one of our favourite bodies of work that has been released in recent years. The run-up to album number two has been nothing less than perfect. From their outstanding Tiny Desk performance to the pop-perfect lead single ‘Leak It’, there have been no misses when it comes to the album promo (let’s forget the album got pushed back for a month, shall we?). The expectations for our current favourite girlband were high, to say the least.
The album counts a whopping sixteen songs in total. Back in the day, this would’ve been normal, but in today’s music industry, it’s quite unusual. This is, right away, our main issue with the album. Some songs could’ve easily been cut, and it would’ve made the album as a whole feel much more cohesive and, honestly, much better. For us, the album starts, after skipping the first two songs, at track number three with the excellent ‘Cry Ugly’. FLO delivers the ultimate heartbreak song to belt out in the shower. They deliver lyrics that’ll have you deep in your feelings.
“Got me all dressed up for nothing. Did my makeup just to watch it all running. Boy, you got me looking in the mirror like ‘Fuck me’. Baby, you know how to make a pretty girl cry ugly!”
Placing ‘I Can’t Be High Around You Anymore’ and ‘Sober’ right behind each other in the tracklist is, of course, no coincidence. They go from singing “I can’t be high around you anymore. Makes me think you want me the way I want you. My mind is sayin’ that I could be yours but I should ignore it, ‘cause that just ain’t true.” over a glossy, finger-snapping production to delivering one of the album’s slower tracks, singing “Why can’t you say you love me when you’re sober? Why does your heart only open up when you’re high as fuck?” These two back to back are a masterpiece almost begging for a short movie music video.
We remember the first time hearing that ‘Pump Up The Jam’ by Technotronic sample coming through our speakers. At first, we didn’t hear the vision. It took us seeing Stella jokingly speaking about the song during an interview to get it. She wrote the song with Sevyn Streeter feeling silly and just playing around, not thinking the song would ever see the light of day. Listening to the song knowing they don’t take themselves too seriously has made us fall in love with the sassy and fun club banger.
Title track ‘Therapy At The Club’, single ‘Remedied’ and ‘Haterbooth’ on closing duties all sound like an audition for a potential future Dreamgirls reboot. They have that Motown girl group feeling written all over them. FLO is cementing themselves as modern-day The Supremes and The Marvelettes with each of these respective songs. The three tracks could’ve almost served as a little side EP on their own, taking inspiration from the OG all-female groups that came before them.
The standout songs are really those that saw the light of day before the album drop. ‘Don’t Break Her Heart’ is a strong competitor for one of the best songs released this year. It’s on songs like this where FLO strives at their full potential. A strong theme about sisterhood, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, a fantastic R&B production and heavenly harmonies. And we haven’t even started talking about the video yet. The same goes for ‘Leak It’, the song that had everyone shook upon its first listen. The step away from their usual sound to go full Brit-pop opened the era with an unforgettable statement.
Does THERAPY AT THE CLUB reach the same heights as their debut album? No. Does it feel messy and overcrowded, with too many songs taking away from the overall cohesiveness? Oh yes. But does that mean FLO have lost their magic? Absolutely not. In fact, when the songs work, they really work. ‘Cry Ugly’, ‘Don’t Break Her Heart’, ‘Leak It’, ‘Therapy At The Club’ and the other standout moments show exactly why we are such massive fans of these three women in the first place. FLO are still delivering killer tracks and proving once again that they are the most exciting girlband out there right now.