As if sent to stop the annoying annual conversation about "the song of the summer," U.K. house duo Disclosure have delivered an entire album of summer tunes. Settle, the debut full-length by brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, arrives expertly assembled and overflowing with fun. Beats pound through keyboard melodies, sweaty atmospheres and skeletal arrangements, and many are vehicles for astounding guest vocals from Sam Smith, AlunaGeorge and Jessie Ware.
"When A Fire Starts To Burn" leads off with a simple groove built around a vocal loop, and "Latch" follows with an impossibly big, deep chorus. Meanwhile, "You & Me" bounces around on a rubbery bass line. If there's one fault to Settle, it's that the great guest vocals can make the instrumentals feel flat by comparison. That said, this album is stacked with singles, and taking it in as a whole multiplies its impressiveness.
