David McAlmont is one of the great British singers, and “Hifi Sean” Dickson an experienced producer who formed forward-thinking 90s indie bands the Soup Dragons and the High Fidelity. They first collaborated on Dickson’s 2016 solo album Ft, where every track was steered by a different star, from Yoko Ono to Crystal Waters. McAlmont took the wheel on Like Josephine Baker, a satisfyingly solid mirrorball stomper shadowed by a little sadness, like all the best disco. The duo’s first full-length project stays close to the club, proving Dickson’s canny ear for foot-twitching rhythms accompanied by exuberant Bollywood strings.
However, on songs such as Hurricanes the spiky drums and candied orchestration submerge McAlmont, leaving him politely fighting for attention down in the mix. It’s mostly fine – Happy Ending, Otherwise and The Fever are fun – but that succulent voice, lighter than a fly on a feather, needs more space, more time. When Dickson grants him room to roam on glorious, affecting single The Skin I’m In, McAlmont interrogates key lines such as “Black lives matter” with the falsetto ferocity that fans of his symphonic-pop classic Yes will remember all too well. More of this next time, please.
