Album Review: What Is Love? by Clean Bandit

Although it took four years for Clean Bandit to issue a sophomore follow-up to their breakthrough debut, they'd slowly been building up to What Is Love? with a series of chart-topping singles that all found their way onto this set. Joined by an impressive roster of high-profile guests from the worlds of pop and hip-hop, the trio took big steps away from the underground-house-meets-classical-crossover sound of their early work and leaned into crowd-pleasing, island-inspired grooves designed for the dancefloor. Like a modern-day Ace of Base, Clean Bandit borrow those reggaeton and dancehall flavors, weaving in their signature cello and violin for emotional sweep, and slapping heavy percussion into the mix for good measure.

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C lean Bandit began with an undeniable aura of nerdiness. They met at Cambridge, where two members of the original lineup led a string quartet; their first hit was called Mozart's House and merged the composer's work with a squelchy dance beat. However, the studious trio soon garnered a reputation for being boffins of a different variety: as the Top 10 hits and online streams racked up (to date: nine and 4bn, respectively), it became clear they had masterminded a failsafe formula for churning out chart catnip.

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