Listening back to Georgia’s last album Seeking Thrills feels a little like an out of body experience; released in 2020, the heavily club-centric vibe of About Work The Dancefloor and Never Let You Go come from across the yawning, pre-pandemic divide from when people still actually went out.
During the tour to support the album the singer – daughter of Leftfield’s Neil Barnes and whose childhood bedroom doubled up as the studio used to record their classic Leftism – closed her shows with a version of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, a studio version of which ended up getting subsequently bathed in a Stranger Things halo.
Returning now with Euphoric to what feels like a very different era, her mindset was to let the past go, including a previous reluctance to co-produce. After striking up a friendship with former Vampire Weekend member Rostam the pair set to work in LA on material which was purposefully more open and radio-friendly, All Night And Euphoria motions with intent.
Under the surface however things feel more complicated than just raving until sun up. Euphoric was created in the shadow of a close friend’s passing, and amongst the hedonism there are lyrical references to the process of managing that, along with the importance of friendships and on Give It Up For Love the complications of body image. It’s this blend of under and overtow that Georgia never quite gets in balance enough to truly satisfy, an unconscious hedging which robs Euphoric of the opportunity to lay down the completely new marker the singer so clearly wanted.
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The Voice Of Unreason 