So far they don’t have those hits, of course, but they’ve come up with enough passable facsimiles to fill a pretty likeable album. There are no experimental digressions that might alienate the dance floor, no nods to the salad days of Brainfeeder or Ice Cream Records simply for the sake of bolstering the duo’s music-nerd cred.
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And while they update these styles with the airy, wide-open production aesthetic of modern alternative R&B, their songs are rooted squarely in pop. On their debut album Begin, singer Jillian Hervey (the daughter of actress Vanessa Williams) and producer Lucas Goodman (who records under the deceptively Def Jux-y sounding nom de plume Astro Raw) shuffle between disco, house, and neo-soul. And sure enough, that’s more or less what Lion Babe deliver-except that compared to their similarly styled peers, their sound isn’t actually all that left-field at all. Even if you’re only fleetingly familiar with acts like AlunaGeorge or Quadron, you probably have a good sense of what to expect from this kind of singer/producer pairing: posh, slightly left-field R&B with one foot in the past and the other in future. Track listing No.You’ve seen plenty of press photos like Lion Babe’s over the last few years: A glamorous singer, eyes locked on the camera as she shares the frame with an unassuming, narrow-shouldered guy who doesn’t look like he talks very much. Shahzaib Hussain of Clash said that "more often than not, it feels as if too much of the album's soundscape is reliant on retro stylings, when Lion Babe's own idiosyncratic stamp would pack more of a punch", but that "there is enough substance here to surmise Lion Babe's future promise". They're after hits." Dami Solebo of PopMatters said that Lion Babe "appear to play spin the bottle with sub-genres in an effort to make something stick" and that ultimately "many of Lion Babe's ditties fall short of achieving anything in particular, making it a pleasant enough album, but one that is quickly forgettable". There are no experimental digressions that might alienate the dance floor. Evan Rytlewski of Pitchfork criticized what he felt was a lack of experimentation, noting that Hervey and Goodman's songs "shuffle between disco, house, and neo-soul.
Just as crucially, she and Goodman don't act as if innovations in R&B ceased before they were born most of these songs are as modern sounding as anything aired on radio stations classified as mainstream urban." He was disappointed by some of the collaborations on the record, feeling that " Begin resonates most when Hervey and Goodman are left to themselves".
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Critical reception Professional ratings Review scoresĪndy Kellman of AllMusic said, "Hervey takes cues from forthright soul-funk greats like Chaka Khan, Betty Wright, and Betty Davis, but she has a gentler character that's her own, whether she's singing of body positivity, seducing without compromising herself, or serving up would-be skipping rhymes. They were released as singles in 20, respectively, from the duo's EP Lion Babe (2014). The album also includes "Treat Me Like Fire" and "Jump Hi", which features American actor, voice actor, rapper, songwriter, and writer Childish Gambino. "Where Do We Go" was the third single to be released from the album on November 20, 2015."Impossible" was released on Jas the second single.It was written and produced with American singer, rapper and record producer Pharrell Williams. "Wonder Woman" was released as the album's first single on March 23, 2015.