- George Fitzgerald seems to have spent most of his career in the shadows of others: first Joy Orbison, after the two touched on the same blissed-out 2-step formula at roughly the same time; and latterly producers like Midland, whose hybrids of main room-friendly house and ample bassweight Fitzgerald seems intent on emulating on this EP. That's not to say this is a pastiche exercise—this town's easily big enough for the two of them (and probably a few more)—but it's often difficult to see what, if any, newness Fitzgerald brings to the table. Of these four tracks, "Lights Out" and "Unilateral" will be most familiar to Fitzgerald fans: both trade on warm, melancholic chord progressions and snipped up vocal refrains. The former has a nice machine-drum bump to it and, later on, airy piano chords that more explicitly reference Chicago.
Elsewhere, more of a stylistic departure is in evidence. "Child" has a jacking Chicago vibe to it, all taut open hi-hats and meaty claps. The requisite vocal science strays into male diva territory and there's not a sadsack chord in sight, making this more straightforwardly dance floor-focussed than much of Fitzgerald's output. "Hindsight," meanwhile, plays with the contrast between light and dark, airy chords in the breakdown giving way to a deep, almost tunnel-vision groove. An angry, mix-dominating hoover stab, dropped in periodically, supplies a moment of surprise—an unfortunate rarity on this EP.
Tracklist A1 Child
A2 Lights Out
B1 Hindsight
B2 Unilateral