Swedish mellow maestros’ Little Dragon return with their seventh full-length studio album – Slugs of Love. It’s a happy comprise between organic and electronic, as they enter dreamy techno-R&B grooves, wispy instrumentals and cutting trip-hop inflections.
Since the release of their debut self-titled album in 2007, Gothenburg-based outfit Little Dragon have become one of the most beloved bands.
You wouldn’t have thought that the band are in their third decade together. You also wouldn’t of thought that they were still making coherent music, spicy enough to express themselves in new enigmatic sounds. Spicy enough to escape the trap of forever being a soundtrack to hotel lobbies and avant-garde museums.
Since the release of their debut self-titled album in 2007, Gothenburg-based outfit Little Dragon have become one of the most beloved bands. Spearheaded by dynamic vocalist Yukimi, multi-instrumentalists Hakan and Fredick with Erik taking up the spot on percussion, the group have earned a reputation to not do things by halves; unafraid to continually evolve and change their sound with the seasons.
It really started with their breakout album Ritual Union in 2011, an earnestly sophisticated indie dance groove that ripped up the fabrics of indie-pop, as it was turned into more of a shade of off-colour quirkiness in the 2010s. Since then, they’ve been making eclectic blend of wafer-thin electronics for 15 years. Magically, the band have stayed relevant too, which evidently comes with the change-up in sounds and colours in every record they release. The Grammy-nominated Season High in 2017 was an eye-opener for many. With a band seemingly struck-off by many, Season High was an altar for alternative-electronics, led by the heel-whip of Asian-infused Celebrate and coffee-morning High.
In a statement released along with the album announcement back in May, Little Dragon called Slugs of Love their “masterpiece.” A fruitful humdrum of hand-crafted electronics, Slugs of Love is the first album of theirs, where R&B have explored in such lengths. All the while, the residue of indie-dance remains ever so slightly on tightly-cut Frisco and JID’s collab in Stay – a rich funk-soul stir in ladled with a powerful pairing of vocals. Little Dragon are the kings of collaborations, often embellishing others’ work more than their own, which has been notably with appearances on Mac Miller’s GO:OD AM in 2015 and SBTRKT’s self-titled with the certified classic, Wildfire. Their new record stays true to form with Damon Albarn coming onto gentile Glow, a soft spark of vocal magic previously explored on project Gorillaz with Plastic Beach in 2010.Tumbling Dice is the perfect embrace of both soul and R&B as Nagano’s strong lyrics weave into funky instrumentals while Disco Dangerous plays into the well.. you guessed it.. into dance-floor rollerblading to Blue Monday ’88. It’s a tad shade different to what we’re known from Little Dragon to draw up. But change is needed in an ever-adaptive world of new music, where trends go out of fashion quicker than you can collate them together into a playlist.
“Did you know that leopard slugs perform a very sensual and acrobatic dance, an exchange between two individuals carrying the same set of reproduction systems? Maybe we are all yearning for love and ecstasy, as we turn more sluggish and slimy trying to convey this urge.”
The band on the album title
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