FLO
Jack Alexander
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
FLO, the U.K.'s latest (only?) new girl group have an undeniably throwback sound. When they say they love '90s R&B though they're not just putting the same handful of songs into a pre-drinks playlist and making it their personality. Listening to FLO you can sense that they feel the era in their bones.
Take the new song "Not My Job," for example. It's not just a sound thing, though producers Tre Jean-Marie and MNEK do a fine job of conjuring up that late '90s vision of the future via dark synths and tightly compressed drums. Nor is it Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma, and Renée Downer's flawless harmonies, though they help too. FLO's music escapes the trap of empty nostalgia-bait by embodying the spirit of classic hits like Destiny's Child's "Bug a Boo" or "No More Drama" by Mary J. Blige, songs that say "leave me alone... I'm better off out of this."
There's a quiet confidence to singing: "It’s not my job to make you feel comfortable, it’s not my job to make you feel like a man" and FLO have it in bucket loads. That same confidence carries through each second of "Not My Job," a song to hum next time you skip a scenario you simply don't have the bandwidth to deal with.
