If you're kicking off your brand new dance album, a record that will soon soundtrack festivals the world over, maybe you shouldn't do it with The Weeknd.
Hopes are high that Disclosure's second album, the follow-up to 2013's Grammy-nominated Settle, will send the bros from Surrey into the stratosphere. But they're quickly dashed when R&B crooner Abel Tesfaye delivers his dour sex scorn on Nocturnal - sample lyric: "There's freedom in the loneliness" - over an otherwise shimmering electro jam. Can't Feel My Face this is not.
Nocturnal is an interesting - probably incorrect - cut, chosen to open Disclosure's second album, one that Caracal never really recovers from. Yes, the silky smooth sophomore record from brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence is bolstered by a more impressive roster of guest artists than Settle.
There's Sam Smith, who Disclosure helped break on Settle's Latch, doing his thing on Omen, a song that bursts into life with a sweetly timed chorus, while R&B man-of-the-moment Miguel moans and pouts on Good Intentions, finding himself in a similar place to The Weeknd on Nocturnal. And as impressive as Jordan Rakei is on the closing ballad Masterpiece, Lorde steals the show on Magnets, a song that should probably have been used to open the album. Her classy hooks are a perfect match to Disclosure's shuffling stomp, a moment that bodes well for the Kiwi singer's second album.
