As Jungle, the London-based duo Tom McFarland and Joshua Lloyd-Watson make feelgood music that is firmly rooted in the past. Interested in the Mark Ronson school of producing slick, digitised versions of disco and soul, they earned a Mercury prize nomination for their eponymous 2014 debut
, and have since produced hit singles such as the strings-laden Busy Earnin’ and the funk-inflected Keep Moving. Consistently upbeat and supremely commercial, Jungle’s tunes have made for energetic live shows as well as perfect background fodder for adverts by global brands like Peloton.
Their fourth album, Volcano, continues the theme, with head-nodding 70s funk breakbeats (Dominoes), wistful, guitar-strumming soul (Back on 74) and euphoric disco choruses (Every Night), all ripe for radio play. It’s confidently produced, but Jungle’s consistency leaves their record sanitised, lacking the grit and yearning emotion that makes disco and soul so enduring. There are gestures towards something deeper – rapper Roots Manuva rattling his baritone at the end of You Ain’t No Celebrity, or the harsh, thumping bass of Holding On – but largely, Volcano trades on Jungle’s same, safe formula. There is little new in the nostalgia of these 14 tracks.
