Look Around the Corner

Gorgeous album from UK producer, musician, arranger, songwriter Will Holland and vocalist songwriter Alice Russell, along with Quantic’s five-piece live Latin funk outfit. Look Around The Corner feels like a consolidation of all the musical influences that have driven Holland and Russell’s collaborations over the last few years. It’s an extravagant and utterly confident collection of contemporary but retro-leaning soul jazz, funk, Latin boogaloo and Cumbia with a suitably ambitious opener, the epic, orchestrated hippie-soul à la Rotary Connection of the title track. They then effortlessly switch to sophisticated, welcoming, groove-heavy string-sweetened soul with “Here Again”; “Travelling Song” strikes a Bacharach-esque Latin groove redolent of peak-Dionne Warwick, while “Magdalena” is classic early Quantic Soul Orchestra retro funk — and that’s just the first four tracks. An absolute joy from start to finish.