Settle – Disclosure ★★★★½

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2013	Settle	Disclosure	★★★★½	92	Electronic	House	Synthpop

It’s fitting that Disclosure’s debut album came out less than three weeks after Daft Punk’s final album. Disclosure’s Settle is, I think, as close to perfect as a house record can get, while Daft Punk, one of the genre’s titans, put out Random Access Memories, one of the most artistic, least electronic sounding electronic albums of all time. 

Both albums are undeniably linked in my mind, with Daft Punk paying homage to their dance influences of the past and Disclosure fully refining the indietronica sounds of modern dance music.  

Settle is a non-stop disco. Pounding, funky bass lines, metallic high-hat hits, swelling club  synths, chopped up samples and sensual, energetic vocal performances are present across the board. Every time those club synths hit and the songs start to build, I’m hooked.

While “Latch” enjoyed commercial success over a year after the album’s release due to Sam Smith’s sudden fame, the reality is there are probably seven other tracks on the album that are just as catchy, feature similarly skilled vocalists and are maybe even better songs overall. Those vocalists — the fabulous Jessie Ware, Jamie Woon, AlunaGeorge, Edward MacFarlane, Sasha Keable, Eliza Doolittle, London Grammar and the aforementioned Sam Smith— are the keys to how memorable the record is. Where lesser house records of the past could wear out their welcome by being too repetitive or robotic, Settle’s performances enhance every song, add a level of human emotion and give you not only a melodic hook, but lyrics to latch onto while the English electronic music duo does their thing — bending notes, syncopating rhythms, chopping samples and dropping the bass out from under you.