Chloe - The Waiting Room

Everyone's favourite Parisian electro queen drops her long-awaited full-length, and bloody hell is it a quality piece of work. Spending the majority of the album in deliciously dark acoustic and ambient territory, Chloe teases and cajoles, capturing the listener in reduced beats and organic sounds, occasionally unleashing hip and disillusioned club anthems like Suspended or Over the Dose. It's a multi-faceted album, experimenting in techy dancefloor tunes, acoustic passages and the occasional atmospheric soundbyte like Common Cello or Dead End. For the pure aesthetic hit, Chloe yet again turns out a couple of killer tunes with fat bass and squelchy acid keys. However, a sense of naivety pervades the album, giving way to introspection and vulnerable experimentation. It's this cross between the upbeat and the reflective that allows the indie-ish Around the Clock and the sexed-up, sleaze-house of Be Kind To Me to exist on the same sheet. On The Waiting Room, Chloe exhibits a knack for breaking boundaries and formulae, without ever straying too far. It's a good trick and played well. Tasty. [Liam Arnold]