Samantha Urbani - Showing Up

For anyone familiar with Samantha Urbani as frontwoman of 2010s NYC outfit Friends, ‘Showing Up’ arrives as the next logical step on from those youthful forays. An updated, slicker take on the bass-led, R&B-influenced sound that not only they, but contemporaries Chairlift and Dev Hynes made their name on, a decade later, the singer’s output is far less concerned with outward appearances. “I’m immune to guitars / I’m immune to cool,” she sings during ‘One Day At A Time’, a line that sums up the shift from Friends to now succinctly. At times its influences may be a little too obvious – see the bassline of ‘Time Keeps Slipping’ for a Metronomy nod, for example – but between the euphoric segue from the subtle dancefloor vibe of ‘Guiding Star’ into the full on disco stomp that is ‘Isolation’ and the throwaway “Fuck it” that cherry-tops the opening title track, eschewing six-strings and the zeitgeist sounds like it’s been fun.