me&you began life as a one-off Tru Thoughts collaboration between noted session producer TM Juke and label co-owner Robert Luis, just to get a little something special to throw into their sets. Understandably, this joint creation caused quite a stir in the Brighton worldwide community. The publicity generated became too much for them to ignore, so they decided to dedicate a full-length album to their efforts. On paper, it’s a match made in underground electric sheep dreams. TM Juke has established himself a fine career based on his well-received solo albums and producing/co-writing the luscious soul powder keg Alice Russell, while Robert Luis has some of the most inspired taste an A&R man ever had (any friend of Danny Breaks is a friend of mine), but there’s just a little something missing in the final product.
Floating Heavy is not a bad release. I’m definitely not saying that. However, despite the use of an intro and interludes, the long-player is not so much an album as a collection of DJ singles –- though, thanks to Juke’s call-in, I’m now tremendously interested in hearing that hot, new Tiffany/Steven Segal mash-up. Variety abounds, sure enough, but it seems like the guys sat down and decided to write a jungle track here, a dancehall number there, then tried to fit their individual sounds around the basic song structure, rather than truly collaborating with each other. “Ze Zam” is one of the rare exceptions, leading a raunchy hip-hop bassline with distorted Brazilian folk instrumentation; so the album is not without its moments. Actually, that and “Last Night” (not a Strokes cover, but a swinging drum and bass track centered around an old timey reggae/folk sample) get my vote as the album highlights and, coincidentally, were the first two “one-off” tracks that started the whole thing. Perhaps they should’ve worked on a couple more singles before jumping straight into an album. While it has its moments, Floating Heavy simply should have been better than it is.
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