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a r t i s t :: Metronomy
t i t l e :: Love Letters
d a t e :: 2014-00-00
l a b e l :: Because Music
g e n r e :: Electronic
s o u r c e :: CD
b i t r a t e :: 863 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V
t r a c k s :: 10
p l a y t i m e :: 41:19
s i z e :: 255.9MB
tracklist
1 The Upsetter 4:15
2 I'm Aquarius 4:01
3 Monstrous 3:53
4 Love Letters 5:15
5 Month Of Sundays 3:26
6 Boy Racers 4:18
7 Call Me 3:51
8 The Most Immaculate Haircut 4:30
9 Reservoir 3:14
10 Never Wanted 4:36
releasenotes
When last we saw Metronomy, they were strolling rakishly into the golden
light
of a Torbay sunset, a Mercury nomination in their back pocket and sales of
their third album racking up like rows of cherries on a one-armed-bandit slot
machine. The success of 'The English Riviera' could hardly have happened to a
more deserving band, but anyone expecting æLove LettersÆ to pick up where its
predecessorÆs tongue-in-cheek vision of seaside glamour left off will be
disappointed. "Back out on the riviera, it gets so cold at night", yelps a
forlorn-sounding Joseph Mount on opener 'The Upsetter', a song that drops
references to early-Æ90s cultural touchstones like Tasmin Archer, Whitney
Houston and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but whose droning atmosphere of
dislocation and anxiety has more in common with David BowieÆs 'Space Oddity'
than ArcherÆs 'Sleeping Satellite'. By the time the ghostly 'Never Wanted'
brings things to a close, 40 too-brief minutes later, it's impossible not to
picture tumbleweed blowing down a derelict promenade, past stacks of
weather-beaten deck chairs, shuttered-up bars and empty arcades. The inference
is clear: welcome to the off-season.
Where a more craven artist might have sought to cash in on a sleeper hit like
'The English Riviera' with a big, populist follow-up, Mount has returned with
a small, unashamedly personal one, made with an auteurÆs ear for detail and
disregard for expectation. It's an album about yearning to return to the
things you've been dragged away from, be they the landmarks of your childhood
(the quaint casiotone melancholy of 'Reservoir') or your children themselves
("Honestly, it's all I'm thinking of", sings a distracted Mount of his baby
son on 'Monstrous'). You'll find nothing here as immediate or accessible as
'The Bay', and even among those who were predisposed to love them, the album's
first two singles have polarised, not galvanised, opinion: the velvety
future-doo-wop of 'I'm Aquarius' served as a curiously moody and minor-key
introduction, while the title track came screeching in from the other extreme,
as ostentatious and off-puttingly exuberant as a troupe of Redcoats
jazz-handing their way through a Wings medley.
This contrarian impulse ultimately makes things more interesting, but Mount's
decision to record at Toe Rag û the all-analogue Hackney studio made famous by
The White Stripes and Billy Childish û imbues the songs with an archaic,
lived-in feel that takes some getting used to, and you'd be forgiven for being
underwhelmed by your first listen. Bear with it, however, and that feeling
will turn to pleasant surprise. 'Monstrous' and 'Month of Sundays' both recall
the airy baroque-pop of Arthur Lee and Love (though the latter ends up
sounding like one of Yoko Ono's more angular, New Wave-y efforts), and with
the exception of 'Boy Racers' û a lightweight instrumental that doesn't quite
feel properly realised û every song, no matter how slight it may initially
seem, serves an aesthetic purpose in the grander scheme of things.
In recent interviews, Mount has professed a certain dread about one day
reaching the Wembley-conquering enormity of his old tourmates Coldplay, which
û even when you take MetronomyÆs growing popularity into account û sounds
comically premature. æLove LettersÆ should assuage that angst. While not a
ædifficultÆ album per se, it is certainly an obdurate and insular one, whose
charms are revealed coyly and across repeat listens. æThe English RivieraÆ was
for the tourists; this one needs to be lived in, not just visited.
www.metronomy.co.uk
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Metronomy-Love_Letters-(2564634748)-CD-FLAC-2014-k4