On Seeking Thrills, Georgia Continues to Work the Dancefloor

In 2019, Georgia turned heads with a simple subject-verb agreement error. “I was just thinking about work the dancefloor,” goes the processed, multi-tracked chorus of her beloved single “About Work the Dancefloor,” a banger that bursts with electronic vigor from its very first barrage of synths and only gets hookier from there. The song is so euphoric, so primed for post-midnight, er, dancefloors that the subject-verb agreement error is clearly not a mistake, but instead an intentional verbal glitch that matches the song’s almost-robotic, gurgling groove.

In other words, to quote the esteemed New Yorker critic Hua Hsu, “About Work the Dancefloor” is “dance music about dance music.” The track is one of many dance songs on Seeking Thrills, Georgia’s analog-dominated sophomore album and first LP in nearly five years, that’s about dance music. Even when Georgia sings about relationships, love, romance and all that standard pop music fodder, her lyrics tend to double as tributes to the joy of dance.

On the track responsible for the album’s title, this dichotomy proves crucial. “I want to feel it again / Seek a thrill / Don’t throw it away,” Georgia sings over flute-like synths and body-rocking percussion on “The Thrill.” Later, featured guest Maurice swings by to repeat “Look out ladies / It’s the thrill / Don’t throw it away” atop an even beefier analog pulse. The song’s romantic and sexual undertones are undeniable, but anyone who’s spent even a second on a dancefloor knows that, sometimes, when the club closes or the DJ stops spinning, you just want to find that adrenaline rush all over again and keep moving no matter the cost.

When Georgia says “They say that you’re gonna be free” on the beatific jog of “Never Let You Go,” she could either be a trite motivational speaker or a DJ commanding her audience to let loose. “24 Hours” opens with a mantra directed to “the party people,” and its title alone conjures images of Berlin clubs that open Saturday night and don’t close until well after sunrise on Monday. “24 hours ago,” goes one part, “I felt my heart taken / And finally / It happened to me / Now this feeling is / Awakened / On a crowded floor.” The conscious coupling of love and dance music is apparent atop a tremendous groove as vibrant as the “ultrasound light consumed by night” of which Georgia sings.

Occasionally, Georgia finds the thrills she’s seeking away from the dancefloor. “Ultimate Sailor” drips with low-tempo longing, lit by slowly strobing analog synths and Georgia’s tender, appropriately oceanic reflections on traveling the world for her partner. “Honey Dripping Sky” eventually swells into an arena-sized ballad of devotion, and highlight “Feel It” is more electro-clash than dance, where synths scream so gratingly they resemble punk power chords, while Georgia’s sneering on the chorus (plus a full-throated scream immediately preceding it) matches her melodic fury.

“Feel It” doesn’t jump out from Seeking Thrills’ 13 tracks merely due to its pummeling aggression. The song is also the oldest of the five Seeking Thrills tracks that Georgia has slowly released over the past two years. For the most part, these previously-released singles are the album’s most immediate, so their inclusion poses obstacles toward embracing some of the new songs, including the modest but euphoric lurch of “I Can’t Wait” and the punk-meets-rap brattiness of “Ray Guns.” Even a track as plainly beautiful as the gently cresting “Til I Own It” comes off muted compared to familiar bangers such as “Started Out” and “Mellow.” Or maybe these new songs don’t stand out as much since they’re not full-throttle Georgia bangers. No wonder she was just thinking about work the dancefloor: When Georgia dives headfirst into dance music, as she does for much of Seeking Thrills, she finds her most exciting self.