Album Review: About Last Night... by Mabel

Second album from London-based singer features some great songs but struggles to shake off a confused, thrown-together aesthetic British pop in 2022 has a rather disjointed quality - artists like Harry Styles, Adele and Ed Sheeran are global stars and their music reflects this, while a cottage industry of smaller acts do more to shape the median listening experience and become part of the country's cultural ambience (see June's Diamond Jubilee concert for example). About Last Night… , the second album by Mabel features some great songs courtesy of an A-list creative team - MNEK, Stargate, Rami - as well as some musical troughs and a confused, thrown-together aesthetic. Let Them Know is an enjoyably campy first single, featuring a Disclosure-lite house groove and a dollop of sass ("I got a new man in my business / and he all about his business / and his name is none of your business"), while Shy throws the kitchen sink at American R&B as Mabel makes her advances.

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In the aforementioned seminal 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, drag queen and house mother Dorian Corey discusses the power of the ballroom community that the film explores; describing a space where disenfranchised queer kids can emobdy an ideal of wealth, privilege and status that they would otherwise struggle to find in the outside world. "In a ballroom," Corey says, "you can be anything you want." On About Last Night... - a record that claims to be indebted to the ballroom culture in attitude and aesthetic - it's not clear what Mabel wants to be, or why she wants to be anything different in the first place.

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Whether or not you enjoy Mabel's new album will depend entirely on what's important to you. If it's vocal personality, new sounds, unexpected twists – forget it. But if you're looking for great songs that are slickly and enjoyably produced, then Mabel has a treat for you. 'About Last Night…' is a concept album that follows the progress of a party, from arrival through romantic tension to break-up and final redemption.

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