Forever

French electro collides with \'80s funk and boogie on Mystery Skulls\' debut album. Filtered synths sizzle and the drums are encrusted with distortion, while Luis Dubuc\'s hiccupping falsetto dances circles around greasy slap bass. On the sleek disco number \"Magic\" and the slower, groovier \"Number 1,\" Chic\'s Nile Rodgers contributes flickering guitar riffs while Brandy provides a sweeter, more soulful counterbalance to Dubuc\'s own vocals. And while most of the album has partying in mind, the more vulnerable \"Ghost\" is just the thing for dance-floor catharsis.

The debut full-length album from Los Angeles' Mystery Skulls, 2014's Forever, showcases the group's infectious, '80s-influenced disco, R&B, and dance-oriented soul. Primarily centered around the talents of lead singer, songwriter, and musical mastermind Luis Dubuc, Mystery Skulls make pulsing, laser-toned R&B that touches upon vintage '70s and '80s club music as much as it does contemporary R&B, techno, and EDM. In that sense, cuts like "The Future," "Fantasy," and "Forever" fit just as nicely alongside cuts by Daft Punk and Grum as they do tracks from such similarly inclined artists as Sam Sparro and Justin Timberlake. What helps set Mystery Skulls apart from the rest of the electro-R&B pack is Dubuc's lithe vocal abilities. Blessed with soulful phrasing, a burnished middle vocal range, and a knack for ascending into a lusty falsetto croon, Dubuc comes across as less the pulsating center of a robotic hive mind, à la Daft Punk, and more like an improbable cross between Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump and '90s R&B prodigal son D'Angelo.