Dance, No One's Watching

“This album is the sound of release, the story of a world tour condensed into one night out,” Ezra Collective bandleader Femi Koleoso tells Apple Music. “It moves from getting into the club to sussing the vibe, losing yourself to the music and feeling its euphoria. The dance floor is full of the highs and lows of life and that’s what we’re channeling.” After the London-based quintet became the first jazz act to win the Mercury Music Prize for their 2022 album *Where I’m Meant to Be*, their follow-up arrives with a dance-floor-focused bang. Featuring the band’s typical blend of jazz improvisation with West African rhythm, Afrobeat horns, and fizzing, upbeat energy, the 19 tracks of *Dance, No One’s Watching* inspire infectious movement. Written during a triumphant 2023 world tour, the record encompasses the fanfares of “The Herald,” gentle highlife rhythms on “Palm Wine,” hip-hop swing on “Streets Is Calling,” and emotive neo-soul on “Why I Smile.” “We’re questioning what ‘dance music’ actually means, since everything from klezmer to reggae and waltzes make you dance,” Koleoso says. “This album is an honest expression of all the things that move us.” Read on for Koleoso’s in-depth thoughts on a selection of songs from the album. **“The Herald”** “The word ‘herald’ means ‘bringer of joy’ and that’s what the dance floor brings to us. Ezra Collective has a mandate to bring joy when we play live and it’s what makes our shows feel so connected. We wanted to start the record deliberately with this battle cry. It’s a big shout, a manifesto of what you need to hear when you’re first getting on the dance floor. The right amount of joy will shatter your insecurities.” **“Palm Wine”** “West African highlife is a strong influence for us and this is the first time we’ve referenced it on a record. We were interested in exploring what kinds of music are allowed to be called ‘dance music’ and we think highlife is the perfect example of music for peaceful, elegant dance floors. Palm wine is a drink associated with things being relaxed and going well, and it’s the perfect title for this track that embodies when things are confident and sexy in the dance.” **“God Gave Me Feet for Dancing” (feat. Yazmin Lacey)** “This track carries on the bouncy, beautiful feel of highlife from ‘Palm Wine.’ I wrote the horn line in the shower but, once the track was done, I had a conversation with \[DJ, broadcaster, and author\] Annie Mac about joy and how it feels like God didn’t just make our feet for running and hunting, he made them for dancing, and I realized it needed a vocal too. Yazmin sings those lines perfectly, saying, ‘God gave me feet for dancing/And that’s exactly what I’ll do,’ because we can all access this joy in ourselves.” **“N29”** “I find Berlin beautifully fascinating because of their dance culture, where it’s like people are in deep meditation or being struck by the Holy Spirit on the dance floor. I wanted to recreate that depth of being in the dance on ‘N29.’ It’s named after the night bus that goes from Trafalgar Square to Enfield, through every part of North London, and it encapsulates how a huge part of the dance floor is getting there and getting back from it. This track is the middle of the record, since the middle of the night can see people arriving, already there, or leaving, and that’s what you find on the night bus with people having their different phases of the night on it. At one point, I strike my hi-hat bell like it’s pressing the button to stop the bus!” **“No One’s Watching Me” (feat. Olivia Dean)** “I’m a big fan of Olivia’s, and I was gripped when I watched her at Forwards Festival in 2023 since she was performing with such honesty. I knew I had to get her on the record, and we had such an honest session where we just started talking about life, and she said the best feeling you get when dancing is when it’s like no one’s watching you and you let the music take control. That was the song right there! Musically, it’s modeled on the marriage between Afrobeats and Afrobeat, where the horns are like Fela Kuti but the bassline and drums are like Tems and Wizkid, while Olivia soulfully drops in on top.” **“Hear My Cry”** “This is a reimagination of a church song, something I grew up listening to, since I wanted the record to take us to the church dance floor now. It’s all about how the dance floor can feel bigger than you, it can sweep you up and overcome your feelings of overwhelm. I wanted to do justice to how I hear the song in church with a marching energy but also adding a calypso/soca feel on top. I’m excited for this to come out because we’ve been playing it on tour and people go insane for it. They’ll finally know what it is now since it never had a name before!” **“Shaking Body”** “‘Shaking Body’ does exactly what it says! It’s inspired by how I fell in love with salsa music in lockdown and began writing songs in that vein, including ‘Victory Dance’ from our last album. Salsa is my favorite acoustic dance music, there’s no help from computers, just instruments tearing it to the floor and being full of aggression. We then wrote the bridge to the track separately to take some of that aggression out, like adding more mixer to a strong drink, and letting the listeners know they can still dance once it’s gone.” **“Streets Is Calling” (feat. M.anifest and Moonchild Sanelly)** “We wanted a hip-hop moment on the album as it has a rich heritage of dance in the music and it’s a big part of our palette. We wanted to bring hip-hop with an African accent, hence getting M.anifest and Moonchild involved, blending Afrobeats and amapiano with the Ezra horn lines. I’m really proud of this song, it’s worlds colliding that people wouldn’t expect from us.” **“Why I Smile”** “This is the sound of falling in love on the dance floor. It’s that moment in the night when you’re getting dramatic because the DJ played a couple of your tunes and so you’re having the best time of your life—everything feels right with the world. I’ve been down that hole in Shangri-La in Glastonbury, when the sun is rising and I feel like, ‘I could die today and I’d be good, all my friends are here!’ Musically, I wanted to keep broadening that idea of which music gives you permission to dance, since this has a laidback, neo-soul energy.” **“Everybody”** “‘Everybody’ is based on another church tune, the Nigerian Baptist song ‘Everybody Blow Your Trumpet.’ I love the word ‘everybody,’ since this album is for everybody, and this track is meant to evoke the end of a great night, when you’re not worried about how you’re going to get home, you’re just ascending. It’s a finishing feeling of euphoria, something we recorded in single takes with all our friends in the room, capturing a real feeling.”