Album Review: Kllo - Maybe We Could

The Melbourne synth-pop duo Kllo – cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam – are often perceived as a lowkey, chillier AlunaGeorge, but they've found their own musical space. And now they're back with a stunning second album, Maybe We Could, ahead of what should have been a triumphant return to Splendour In The Grass. 

When in 2017 Kllo presented their debut, Backwater, they were still unheralded locally – despite having introduced a sophisticated post-The xx hybrid mode three years prior. That album (issued in North America via the esteemed Ghostly International) established them. However, Kllo then retreated. Lam pursued production work, being integral to Allday's excellent, Veronicas-blessed LP Starry Night Over The Phone. (He also has a solo outlet, Nearly Oratorio.) Meanwhile, frontwoman Kaul furthered her writing career in Los Angeles. 

But, after almost splitting, Kllo have newly devoted themselves to an intimate electro-soul – very nightbus era. Maybe We Could is downtempo, experimental and textured, yet Kllo's songwriting has solidified. The individualised material here is introspective, subtle, and alternately angular and curved. The stand-out songs reveal sonic tension – as with the opener Cursed, a broken ballad. Still Here, about a stagnant romance, combines (piano) balladry and (ravey) breaks in the same way as Ariana Grande's no tears left to cry. The title track might be the pinnacle, with its beats, balletic melody and Kaul's soaring voice. Just Checking In has spectrally ambient synths.

Other tracks feel like moodpieces, such as Insomnia, with James Blak-ian hymnal chords, or the avant-soul My Gemini and Ironhand. Somehow unfolds into an open highway song. A Mirror is the banger, with chopped vocals and UK garage rhythms – the classical piano flourishes an added twist. Overall, Maybe We Could is gentle and soft, but it hits home.