It’s nice when the artist does the review for you. “Euphoric” is indeed the best word for Georgia Barnes’ third album. Not in the manner of so much chart dance music in recent years, where the beats are so belligerent that you feel like you’re being forced into the club at gunpoint. Georgia has been in the electronic music world since birth, as the daughter of Neil Barnes from Nineties giants Leftfield, so has enough experience to understand how to approach this thing with more subtlety.
Her last release, Seeking Thrills, featured what looked like a school disco on the cover and plenty of vibrant, retro synthpop inside. She just about managed to take it on tour before the pandemic entered the picture but otherwise it was a locked down recording, produced by her alone in her home studio. It earned her a Mercury Prize nomination alongside Dua Lipa, Charli XCX and 2020’s winner, Michael Kiwanuka, as well as a guest spot on a Gorillaz album and a more surprising role as a co-writer on the peppy recent Shania Twain album.
