For anyone already familiar with the work of San Francisco via New York trio Lemonade, it is important to note that their sophomore LP could easily be a different band.
Where once there were seven-minute, sweat soaked Balearic-house anthems, the album now boasts shorter, more pop conscious minimalistic slow-jams. The record is darker, and takes time to brood within chilling synth textures and reverberating vocal lamentations, underpinned by austere and edgy syncopated break-beats.
Vocalist Callen Clandenen conveys the most obvious contrast with the trio’s earlier work, with a noticeable shift in vocal temperament to successfully achieve the denser raw-pop aesthetic that just managed to elude him on Pure Moods.
Despite moments of the recording verging on a somewhat over-polished sheen, the more than capable song writing on “Neptune”, “Softkiss” and “Vivid” still does enough to take off some of that gloss from the production to ensure it is not overbearing.
The strength of album closers “Big Changes” and “Softkiss” do everything to affirm the success of this record. “Big Changes” possesses all the ingredients of a dance floor anthem; with an almost nostalgic allusion to late 90s four to the flour semi-quaver synth hooks, while “Softkiss” reinforces the underlying sentimentality and emotion within the record.
Lemonade have managed to produce a record that is starkly different to anything their prior releases indicated towards, but in no way is this to their detriment. If anything, Diver conveys a maturity and capability for songwriting that had previously eluded the band, but passes with flying colours on this release.
– Morgan Benson
