SG Lewis’s AudioLust & HigherLove is a leveling up for the British producer and singer. If it doesn’t supersede 2021’s infectious Times in terms of quality, it certainly does in ambition: Nearly twice the length of its predecessor, AudioLust & HigherLove is an attempt at a two-part concept album revolving around romance and relationships. Side one is Lewis at his ostensibly most skeptical, carnal, and non-plussed, while side two finds him caught in starry-eyed reverie. In both sections, though, he still sounds like a bit of a simp.
Despite trying out a fair number of different modes, these 15 songs almost uniformly fall into plucky dance-pop, so it can feel somewhat monotonous, not befitting the stark shift in mood that the narrative demands. “Plain Sailing” begins at a slower lilt, accented by fleet guitar, but it’s not long before it takes a quick heel turn and introduces a muscular dance beat.
It’s difficult to be excited by AudioLust & HigherLove’s fascination and debts to ’80s synth-pop coming on the heels of so many imitators of that style over the last several years. Plus, the forbearers who Lewis calls to mind aren’t always flattering: The percussion on “Holding On,” for instance, conjures that of Europe’s tacky “The Final Countdown.”
When Lewis invokes ’90s-era quiet storm on the closing track, “Honest,” it’s a welcome and surprisingly effective pivot, swerving away from the expectations of dance music without losing the groove. Another album highlight, “Oh Laura,” sounds like it’s ready to erupt at any moment but is smartly kept reined in—a tantalizing quality which only heightens its impact.
There are copious examples of Lewis’s canny production choices throughout, from the vocal manipulations he applies to the end of certain words on “Another Life” to the tropical drums that close out “Missing You.” On the inane “Something About Your Love,” however, Lewis spends over five minutes musing that there’s “just something about your love” but fails to identify what that is: “Can’t find any words/Couldn’t tell you what makes it perfect” he admits, before repeating the title over and over. He’s at such a loss, in fact, that he ends the track with an outré discharge of what sounds like a guitar filtered through a xylophone. It’s a brazen swing for the fences that almost makes you forget the utter pointlessness of the track itself.
In terms of Lewis’s emotions-by-way-of-instrumentals approach, the close to nine-minute “Epiphany” fairs much better. It’s not ambient music exactly, as the song is driven by a more traditional drum beat, but it’s measured and exploratory and its rubbery synths have a charm to them, even if it feels like there isn’t much of an animating purpose. It’s a fitting metaphor for AudioLust & HigherLove: an assemblage of enjoyable ingredients that doesn’t coalesce.
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