m-flo – Neven Review

m-flo Neven Album Art

Release Date: March 13, 2013

Track Listing

  1. #canuhearthestars?
  2. Yeah!
  3. Tonite
  4. #395days
  5. No Way
  6. Das Dance (Like That)
  7. Butterfly
  8. #backinbusiness
  9. Chance
  10. One in A Million
  11. Lover
  12. #anotherreality
  13. Fnky Algorhthm
  14. #neven
  15. Journey X
  16. Transformerz
  17. #back2square1

Review

Usually you have to wait a long time for a new m-flo album.  After all, it was five years after Cosmicolor that Square One was released.  So to see a quick turnaround such as this is a welcome surprise. Continuing off where their previous album left off, Neven does not list who the guest vocalists are.  For the record the collaborators are as follows:

Minami (from Cream)
Matt Cabb
Minmi
Kato Miliyah
Unico
Kiko Mizuhara

The majority of the female vocals, except for Lover (Kato Miliyah), Tonite (Minmi) and No Way (Kiko Mizuhara) belong to Minami.  Matt Cabb appears on Das Dance (Like That), and Unico appears on Journey X.  This album is well within the electronic music realm with very few traces of any of the pop elements of the “loves” era of m-flo.  So whether you like Neven is going to depend on how much you can tolerate within that genre.

Chances are you have heard at least one song on this album before its release. Tonite was released in December 2012 digitally, while the first physical release was Lover in February of this year.

If you watch Transformers: Prime, then you recognize the theme for that program which is included at the end of Neven before the last interlude track. Unlike their previous album, there is a singular musical direction that is clearly within the world of House music. (except for No Way & Lover)  So no more disjointed genre-hopping breaking the flow of the listening experience.

Pay special attention to Das Dance (Like That) if you want a touch of smooth beats that are not normally heard from m-flo.  Should you be in the mood for something harder, then go with Fnky Algorthm.  That is similar to some of VERBAL’s solo material from VISIONAIR or something out of Taku’s DJ sets.

Also, take note of Journey X which is a throwback to the UK 2-Step sound that was popular back in the late 90s – early 2000s.  After listening to this song, those who lived through that scene will probably remember the good old days before the genre was commercialized and corrupted.

When all is said and done, Neven was a much more cohesive effort.  I did feel the hashtag interludes/skits were not necessary to break up sections of the album.  They seemed more like filler and kind of killed the buzz for me.

Other than those minor inconveniences that can be easily skipped, Neven is worth investing some time in.

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