Rhye - Woman

Okay: first shock out of the way. That's not a woman's voice. The pearly-loveliness that poured out of my headphones one day as I listened to 'The Fall' is none other than one-half-of-Rhye Mike Milosh. I initially wondered if they'd gotten a hold of UK Moyet-revivalist Clare Maguire, or perhaps Sade to do it, but no, Rhye can now be added to that list of gender-bending vocal lushness in dance music that currently houses Hercules and Love Affair, Toto's Steve Luthaker (on I Won't Hold You Back, later a hit for DJ Roger Sanchez as Another Chance) and Washed Out.

The Canadian Milosh already has two solo albums in the mid-noughties under his belt, but has now teamed up with Danish Robin Hannibal (and at this point you may too be asking why 'Milosh and Hannibal' wasn't the name of choice), also of duo Quadron, whose other half's currently gallavanting with Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby soundtrack and Tyler, the Creator tracks.

After a brief orchestral intro (complete with harps), 'Open' initiates the album with sensitive and tender devotion. "I'm a fool for that shake in your thighs/ I'm a fool for that sound in your sighs", Milosh reveals, with appropriate swoonage, whilst a gentle horn breaks up the serenity occasionally, as if wary of ruining the mood. It's quite inevitably been heralded as a very sexy song, and that's nice. Much prettier and simpler is the R&B melody of 'The Fall', a song desperately crying out for 'lounge classic' status with a hefty claim. It's simultaneously cute and engaging, with the strings twirling lushly over the minimalist piano beat. Lyrically there are times where one is reminded of teenage MSN custom names with lyrics like "tell me lies and lullabies", the opener to 'Last Dance', an otherwise fine groove with a slight hook. By 'Verse' it's like the album's stripping itself of volume (to continue the whole sexiness metaphor), and masquerading as some kind of Antony + the Johnsons sideproject with its fancy string sections and little else.

The echoed vocals and groovy bass guitar of 'Shed Some Blood', blended with the lyrics' hints at a kind of jetsetting loneliness ("Speeding my way home on this road to oblivion/ Don't wanna hear your voice on the phone") - and being a Danish, Canadian pair living in L.A. there must be some element of long-distance relationships coming into play - rather intensify the sensuality of the album, whilst '3 Days' does well to reinvigorate a dance atmosphere over the pretense of devouring a lover on a weekend ("Stealing kisses in those bloody sheets/ I'm killing you"). It's a shame, though, that the pair pause and gaze off wearily into the sunset on the understated 'One of Those Summer Days', a soft-jazz bit of melancholy summed up rather briefly by the offhand "I wish you could see it". Were the lyrics opened up a little more it could be enrapturing, because the arrangement behind it is one of the album's most evocative.

Elements of self-doubt and awareness of bad intentions slip into the ultra-seductive 'Major Minor Love', where Milosh talks listlessly of "win[ning] over that side of you/ be that pretty noise for you" all the while reminding himself "I'm so bad" and vowing to "be that pain across your face" in the future. It's startlingly honest, which is somewhat refreshing. Fans of a good old boogie might want to jump straight in at 'Hunger', the funkiest arrangement - although if you've followed chronologically you might be a little more than used to the whole desire/sex lyrical theme ("I'll show my teeth, pull a sword from the sheets"). Heck, even by the end - 'Woman' - even Milosh has been reduced to repeating the word woman in increasingly desperate and languid moans.

There is a repetition and shallowness in some of the lyrics that holds me back from totally falling in love with the album, but it's an incredibly small and quickly forgotten complaint when thrown back into the album's strongest points. An incredibly sensual and gorgeous listen, it's more of a greedy, consumptive half-hour gorgefest of slick beats and sweet strings than an explosive or groundbreaking hour. Which, of course, will risk it being forgotten in the long run up against 2013's inevitable big guns, but this is very much an album that can be revisited again and again - if not just for your Marvin Gaye Let's Get it On soundtrack.

Rating: 8.5/10
Highlights: The Fall; Hunger; Open; 3 Days; Shed Some Blood
Avoid: n/a

Artwork Watch: Sexy.
For fans of: Washed Out, Jessie Ware, the Alison Moyet half of Yazoo
Up next: Justin Timberlake