Because Records
Out on 1st July 2016
Reviewed by Rob Harrison
Metronomy are an Electronic nu Disco band from the south-west, having re-mixed many Electro acts, Goldfrapp, Ladytron, Klaxons and Lady Gaga, they now produce their own material.
The band is led by the multi-instrumentalist songwriter Joseph Mount and Summer is their fifth album.
For this album Joseph has dropped the pure instrumental tracks and added vocals, and to be honest it’s an improvement, as some of the instrumental tracks sound like being held in detention at Guantanamo Bay. But luckily for us Joseph has decided to sing.
Style-wise the album places itself firmly back to the late seventies and early eighties, sounding like Goldfrapp in her supernature period.
One of the best tracks is Old Skool, the new single. Shades of the Swiss band Yello permeate the song, but we then appear to move into Roderick Falconer territory as the mood changes slightly with Night Owl.
It is another good track but we still remain firmly on the retro trip.
But it’s difficult to dismiss the band purely on the basis of retro fever as the songs are well crafted and the album really stands up. This could be a classic in the making.
The retro trip continues with the video for Old Skool, with its nod and a wink to the seventies, with the knowing hipsters playing out what appears to be the key party scene in the ice storm. but it is supposedly a homage to Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. Anyway, it’s a good video whatever.
Joseph Mount offers us knowing winks to the past but does not offer us an idea what the future has in store. At times winking so much it resembles a nervous tic rather than an affectation. Similar to acts like Stealing Sheep or Ladytron, who luxuriate in the their perspective retro trips. Compare that to acts like Grimes and Fever Ray, who can pull off the Electro old skool trip but add some new touches as well.
But this is to take away from the album’s strengths, which lie in the production and songwriting suss and the overall conceptual quality of the album. So check it out and, as I said before, this could be a classic in the making .