SG Lewis, AudioLust & HigherLove review

SG Lewis, AudioLust & HigherLove: REVIEW

“SG Lewis’s knack for writing catchy electro-pop-funk earworms has only sharpened in the two years since his excellent debut LP.”

SG Lewis, AudioLust & HigherLove (PMR / EMI)

Giving your album a title eerily similar to Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds is a pretty ballsy move — but SG Lewis’s sophomore album AudioLust & HigherLove matches the scale of such ambition. Boasting more tracks, greater sonic experimentation and fewer features than his excellent 2021 debut full-length Times, album number two sees Lewis reaching new heights both as a producer and as the star of his own show.

Lewis’s knack for writing catchy electro-pop-funk earworms has only sharpened in the two years since his debut. As with Times, Lewis released a few too many songs ahead of album release day, but they’re all bops: “Infatuation” is a funky, silky-smooth tone-setter for the rest of the LP; “Lifetime” is a timeless-sounding jam that sounds just at home as a newly married couple’s first dance song as it does in the club; “Vibe Like This” is a shimmering, summer-ready track making excellent use of featured artists Lucky Daye and Ty Dolla $ign; and “Something About Your Love” wears its clear influence from Daft Punk’s Discovery proudly.

Many newer tracks also seem to draw from other artists, namely “Oh Laura” (which sounds strangely like Toro y Moi’s Boo Boo); “Another Life” (resembling deadmau5 and Kaskade’s “I Remember”); and the Majid Jordan-esque “Holding On.” Each of those songs provide a unique dimension to the LP nonetheless, even while others like “Epiphany” drag on too long and “Different Light” sounds unfinished and too short. Duration-related gripes aside, AudioLust & HigherLove is a triumph of a 21st-century disco record — sounding bigger, more self-assured, and more timeless-sounding than its predecessor. 9/10 Trial Track: “Lifetime”

“Lifetime” by SG Lewis, from AudioLust & HigherLove

For more on SG Lewis, please visit his website.

This review was originally published in the February 2023 issue of Cult MTL.


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