Salacious Licks, Toxic Tension and Cinematic Haze create the mise en scene in FEATURE’s ‘We Ain’t In Luuuuuuuuuuuuv’ –

The airwaves weren’t exactly crying out for a funk-fuelled prog-hop pop crooner to lay down salacious licks and drip lovable lothario cool, but perhaps they should have been, based on the stylised-to-the-nines merit of the latest single, We Ain’t In Luuuuuuuuuuuuv, by the creative powerhouse FEATURE.

As a producer, singer and rapper working out his own self-defined prog-hop lane, FEATURE has built a sound shaped by cinematic scope, experimental production and hip-hop edge, and this single feels like that identity snapping into focus. He carries the kind of voice you’d hear on BBC Radio 2 and instantly clock that this boy is going places.

There’s a certain element of audacity to his edgy-in-all-the-right-places sonic signature, but he pulls it off with magnetic conviction. The swoony, melody-rich, cinematically hazy fusion of progressive experimentalism and Alex Turner-level vocal cool makes hitting play on We Ain’t In Luuuuuuuuuuuuv the sonic equivalent of nestling into a cinema screening for the most avant-garde independent film showing.

Beneath the charisma, there’s a darker core sparking beneath the surface of the single, following a man unravelling as he tries to convince himself he hasn’t been completely consumed by a toxic relationship. It’s cocky, messy, smart, and a bit gorgeous.

We Ain’t In Luuuuuuuuuuuuv is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast