People Club - Take Me Home

Berlin-based gang People Club purport to make ‘indie soul’ that harks back to ‘70s R&B while also ruminating on important messages. Lofty goals in anyone’s book, but fundamentally ‘Take Me Home’ doesn’t score a single one. Now EPs don’t need to have any great singular identity - they are, after all, most often stop-gap releases in lieu of having anything bigger to say - but at the core of this record is that nothing really gels. Take the self-titled opener; a slinky refrain introduces jazzy vocals, but in place of anything to truly connect with are ghostly synths. Or ‘Francine’, which appears to replace the entire concept of a hook with a breathy vocal. Ironically, they’re at their best here when eschewing the musical styles they put at the forefront; closer ‘Lay Down Your Weapons’ has a raucous blues stomp in it that shorn of fiddly effects and ‘70s soft-rock lens, would be quite the earworm.