Kate Solomon 

Flo: Therapy at the Club review – skirting the dancefloor and overly sweating the small stuff

The British R&B girl group’s follow up to 2024’s Access All Areas is lyrically spicy and musically diverse but somewhat slow paced and lacking the euphoria and hedonism the title suggests
  
  

The three members of R&B trio Flo striding through the dark
Unhurried … (from left) Renée Downer, Stella Quaresma and Jorja Douglas AKA Flo. Photograph: Alex J Piper

When Flo burst out in 2022, the trio were hailed as the second coming of the R&B girl group, and even paid homage to their harmonising forebears Destiny’s Child, Sugababes and SWV in the intro to debut album Access All Areas. They didn’t quite hit as expected – only one single scraped the Top 40 – but they sound undeterred on a vibey second album that adds lyrical spice and musical left turns.

Therapy at the Club follows the flow of a night out, but one rooted in the slight mania of romantic disappointment rather than euphoric release. Pose is a pared-back interpolation of Pump Up the Jam, skittering hi-hat hits echoing the clicks of confidence-boosting burst-mode selfies. On Remedied, Flo are distracted by the admin of getting a cab as big-band horns blast behind an anxious beat; with its 3/4 time signature, piano and dreamy melismatic vocals, the title track sounds more like sashaying through the park than the soundtrack to copping off with strangers.

Like any self-respecting girl group, Flo have their balladry down: Floating is a belter, showcasing their chemistry as the three vocal lines soar around each other. But at 16 often mid-paced tracks, the album drags. Miss U Missing Me meanders through a ghosting situation that ends up feeling kind of justified. The overall disconnect between theme and energy is distracting: there’s self-assurance to Therapy at the Club’s unhurried pace, though more time sweating it out on the dancefloor would make it a more satisfying listen.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*