Album Review: Disclosure - Caracal

Guy and Howard Lawrence continue to extend their influence as tastemakers on this latest album. Caracal is their second effort, and while their critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut, Settle, was a complete surprise to most listeners, Caracal inevitably arrives with expectations. These are the kind of pressures that often contribute to the infamous second-album syndrome, making or breaking careers. Pretentious title aside, the English brothers thankfully seem to have stuck to their strengths and challenged themselves to avoid overthinking their approach, simply improving on what Settle lacked.

There are fewer barnstormers this time around, the duo focusing on their collaborations with the many respective guest songwriters on the album. Sam Smith is back for Omen, opting for a straight-up thematic reversal of his previous partnership with the pair. The underlying music, like the others on the record, is more muscular and fleshed-out than the minimalistic Settle. The sense of space remains in their production, but is magnified through the care they take to ensure their higher-profile guest vocalists have the chance to wrangle the songs into new emotional heights. 

It's hard enough facilitating this many featured artists, but the pair still deliver quality songwriting on their own vocal tracks. Echoes is a fitting tribute to the London garage music influence the pair have famously recontextualised, while bonus track Molecules is an exercise in dance-floor sentimentality. Perhaps the only exception is the self-indulgent Jaded, a diss-track against nameless fake producers. However, it's this work ethic that keeps Disclosure at the forefront of the scene and makes Caracal another substantial release from the electronic band.