As sound as it is to build around a track featuring Christine & The Queens, the remainder of Logic1000’s sophomore album ends up feeling like a loose collection of compilation cuts and B-sides instead of an exclusive compendium.
Sam Poulter has previous in this regard. Mother, the debut, arrived more than five years after her introductory EP and boasted three bangers. It also contained nine additional tracks that demonstrated shading techniques. She had recently become a mum and so maybe she was trying to say something about it being a new lens for her art, each element reborn. What ultimately bound the album together were relatively consistent tempos and a dimly lit, deep-house undercurrent. So, even if she wasn’t always playing to the crowd there was an adherence to continuity.
She followed it almost immediately with a DJ-Kicks mix, which was an expertly curated Radio One-worthy celebration that prioritised consistent threads. The spine still tingles a little when the Logic1000 original “Fused” arrives as the dozenth track but clearly links to the opener, “Lurk” by Oklou. Perhaps this is a conversation for a different forum, but the difference between Mother and DJ-Kicks raised the question of why do we still compel artists to squeeze into the increasingly archaic album format. The proximity of the two release dates only underscored which format was more well-suited.
Trying an album again, the title of Confirmation! shares a rite-of-passage reference with Mother but little else. For one: it doesn’t linger. After a 95-second intro, the nine songs have fled within a half hour. This contributes toward the impression of it being temporary, especially since it scarcely would fill a Friday afternoon festival set much less a club-headlining gig. If something so short is going to succeed, it needs to be bold and leave an impact, and Poulter tries this almost literally by mixing the beats very high and prominently. The bass drum on “All In For You” resonates so loudly that Kučka’s toddler-like cooing struggles for space. “The Only One” launches its strutting on the one beat, as does the Bombsquad intro to “The Girl”.
Quickly, it becomes apparent that the ratio from Mother has been flipped to a predominance of pop songs while the predominately instrumental tracks are recast as interludes and random ones at that. And while the aforementioned “The Only One” has Christine & The Queens’ slicked-back, double-breasted confidence, the rest is completely competent but lacking endeavour: low risk, low reward. An air of homage permeates, whether in tribute to producers behind Madonna (“Sparkle”), Michael Jackson (“Jersey”), Air (“The Way I Change”) or “Born Slippy” (the title track).
The Catholic sacrament of Confirmation is a sort of retying of the baptismal knot. This Confirmation! completely undoes it.
