No one likes honeydew in their fruit salad, and it finds no home on this album either.
Unfortunately, most of the slower songs on this album fail to stand out from each other, or they’re just not that good. Meanwhile, the hard-rock riffs that announce “Anyway You Want To” are let down by the track’s general aimlessness. “Different Planet”, with its minimal, echoed instrumentation, gives the impression of floating through space, a feeling which loses its charm.
Once “Sexy Please” ends, the rest of the record sort of blends into an indistinct 12-minute finale. Near the album’s end comes “Sexy Please”, a percussive track that recalls their Disclosure collaboration “Hourglass”. A few tracks later, a smooth electric guitar heralds the arrival of “The Wave”, easily the album’s highlight. The dissonance between Hervey’s layered singing and speaking in the chorus offers a unique touch as well. With its woozy synths and muffled beat, “Into Me” gives off just the right amount of dancey and sexy. Only more than halfway through does the title track find some edge with Hervey’s rapping, “We frontin’ all the costs / So feminine, big boss.” The preceding “Western World” and “Into Me” put a bit of pep in the duo’s step, the former offering an interesting, funky take on the Pet Shop Boys’ biggest single.Ĭosmic Wind hits its stride at these higher tempos, where Goodman discovers a groove with enough heat for Hervey to glide. “Tell me how you talk/ Show me how you walk,” sings Hervey in the opening lines, hardly expressing a unique emotion or rhyme scheme. Overall, Lion Babe’s second album offers a plethora of mid-to-low tempo songs with a few upbeat movers interspersed throughout. One of the lead singles “Hit the Ceiling”, while a sharp look at a worker’s burnout, quite strongly resembles “Treat Me Like Fire” in sound. The sentiments and lyrics register as cliche while the instrumentals are pleasant, 4/4 time signatures without much innovation. Where begin felt cheeky and slightly daring, Cosmic Wind feels hesitant and stuck as if Jillian Hervey and Lucas Goodman decided not to build any further upon their debut’s foundation. To be fair, this marks their first release as an independent act, having put out their debut on Interscope. Most importantly, “Got Body”, “Wonder Woman”, and “Jungle Lady” boasted personality, something their sophomore album sorely lacks. High-energy moments like “On the Rocks” and “Impossible” display Lion Babe at their best – on their toes – while “Hold On” and “Treat Me Like Fire” deliver the untamed side of sensuality. Listening to Cosmic Wind brought me to revisit begin, a record with a bit of filler surrounding some solid tracks. As it “blows” through dust clouds in the depths of space, a cosmic wind prevents a star from forming, a metaphor easily applied to Lion Babe’s second album of the same name.