All you need to know about Photocomfort’s new song can be found in its chorus. No, not that bit about the “recasting the past.” Nope, not those silly “necessary expressions of sincerity.” Maybe in that bit of faux apathy where singer Justine Bowe declares “lately I’ve got nothing but time!” But not in those words and their stylebook “we’re done”-isms. No, Photocomfort’s calling card is found in their delivery, a wholeheartedly convincing flush of electronic pop circa 2015.
“Not Love” is shy at first, hiding somewhere in that Motown synthpop cover collection that undoubtedly exists on some collector’s laptop. There’s an R&B groove tapped out in the background, with electronic buds that pop around Bowe’s crystalline voice with a natural sway. But the song’s gusto comes from the moments where it swells into synthpop bombast, where Bowe’s voice harmonizes its hook and the synthesizers tumbles into the compulsive rhythms.