FLO are at the center of a contemporary girl-group resurgence alongside peers such as Katseye and XO. It’s a position the trio takes seriously: Their debut album, 2024’s All Access Areas, opened by declaring their spiritual forebears as Destiny’s Child, Sugababes, and SWV. Their choreo is crisp and their vocal harmonies are layered to the heavens. And, pivotally, they sing about love and heartache with the experience and aplomb of a cool older sister doling out advice.
All Access Areas was an astute record about good sex, foolish exes, and new love to heal old heartbreak. The songs on their follow-up, Therapy at the Club, invite more emotionally ambiguous and nuanced romantic dynamics into the trio’s tight pop songwriting. These are “seventh date with your situationship” songs, written with the anguish and thrill of a blossoming connection but no stability to ground it. “I can’t be high around you anymore/Makes me think you want me the way I want you,” goes the conflicted hook of “I Can’t Be High Around You,” where the beat flirts with woozy Southern rap.
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As much as the record is about the tribulations of dating, it’s mostly about self-expression. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, FLO spoke about their shared experience of being raised by single mothers, and how it instilled in them a sense of independence. The lovers in their songs function more as muses than full characters; the narrative realm is entirely that of FLO’s feelings, self-image, and imagination. Ethereal vocal runs and harmonies imbue the airy ballad “Miss You Missing Me” with honeyed yearning—and what FLO crave isn’t another person, but rather the feeling of being missed. On 2000s-inspired R&B track “Leak It,” cinematic strings and a squelching beat imbue the action of posting selfies with Pussycat Dolls confidence and spy-movie intrigue. And on “Small Doses,” which echoes the inky synth-pop of Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” FLO reflect on love’s ability to transform, warning themselves to take it slow: “I’m so consumed, my sanity’s gone/I lost some weight, got depressed, cut my hair.” As with much of the record, the lover mentioned exists only as a catalyst for personal reflection.
If love is a battlefield on Therapy at the Club, female companionship is the armor. “Don’t Break Her Heart” is a sweet, heartfelt anthem in which FLO tell a friend’s new man to treat her right: “Beep-beep, it’s me at your front door if my girl sheds a tear/Probably gon’ think that you ghosted, but I had you disappear.” The threat is jokey but the sentiment is real. Tellingly, this is where they land the most open-hearted lyric on the album: “See, I know my girl/Better than she knows herself/So I can tell the way she feels about you.” On slinky soul track “Therapy at the Club” and Christina Aguilera-inspired pop song “Remedied,” the club is a respite because of the women by their side: the friend who got their lonely ass out the door, the girl who started the night as a stranger and became an accomplice.
