Access All Areas - FLO: Review

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Review by Lavender:

FLO are an R&B trio that have been impressing me for a few years now with early EPs and singles that showed off their great chemistry and harmonizing, on top of a hilarious knack for crafting songs about love and sex with memorable points of view. With some more strong singles added in the lead-up to their debut album, I was hoping that Access All Areas would show off the best of the group's potential. And despite the occasional slip here and there, that's mostly what it does. 

The record is loosely split into two halves with the first being both more romantic and far hornier. It gets off to a killer start out of the gate with two strong singles in the first three tracks. "AAA" is a throwback R&B/pop jam with the trio's voices wonderfully weaving in and out of each other on a fantastic hook. "Walk Like This" didn't hit me quite as immediately when I first heard it earlier this year but it's grown on me quite a bit single then with its subtle claps and huge rumbling drums, plus the hook is stickier than I originally gave it credit for. 

In between them is "In My Bag" which features trap drums in the instrumental and a GloRilla guest verse. She makes a lot of sense alongside the FLO girls conceptually and the verse she delivers hits hard and makes for a great addition. My other favorite track on the first half of the record is "Bending My Rules." The song has a killer instrumental that features these subtle brass passages I love. I also love it conceptually, centering the idea of somebody being so attractive that you're willing to just bend a few rules for them. 

"Soft" is really the only song on the record that feels like it takes a vintage bedroom jam approach to the R&B sensuality. It's a sexy moment even if the track is on the shorter side and the hook isn't perfect. Speaking of imperfect hooks, "Check" is my least favorite of the singles. Despite having a clever double meaning behind "Check" none of the song's refrains hit and repeating "give it so good" over and over again for the entire bridge is so obnoxious. I have similar issues with "How Does It Feel?" which like I said with Chloe last year, we probably should stop calling R&B songs that it basically belongs to D'Angelo forever. But in this case it's that specific refrain and how much it starts to drag with repetition that brings the song down. 

The second half of the record, on the other hand, is all about hard feelings. It kicks off with "Caught Up" which may be my favorite song FLO have dropped to date. It's the perfect combination of punchy instrumentation and hard-hitting refrains with an unflinching attitude that makes it irresistible. More importantly, it sets the tone for a second half that lambasts anyone who had their chance with the FLO girls and missed it. "IWH2BMX" has a rumbling trap beat perfectly matched by the cutthroat half-rapped verses. It really does sound cutting when they sing "I would hate to be my ex" and it carries the weight of the sentiment. 

"Nocturnal" is all about the grind with the trio focusing on the work they put in to eventually reach where they are today. It's a surprisingly brooding song for how triumphant the subject matter is, but they're well-equipped to handle its seriousness. "Get It Till I'm Gone" features another clever turn of phrase that subverted my expectations. It tells the story of a man who isn't going to understand what he had until it's gone and even though its repetition can get monotonous it does help get the point across. Aside from the far too silly "Should Woulda Coulda" the second half is really one banger after another. 

Access All Areas is a strong start for FLO following a few years of building up real hype for themselves as the future of girl groups. Reigned in to just a trio with impeccable chemistry, the personalities of each member are allowed to bounce off of each other and they come together to dish out one clever song topic after another. Even though there are no doubt growing pains along the way, this is a promising start that more than proves why FLO have generated so much attention in such a short career thus far. 7/10


For more R&B check out my review of TInashe's Quantum Baby

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