For all its eclectic hipster trendiness, Metronomy's Mercury nominated The English Riviera didn't half have its blinding all out pop moments. And of those, Corinne is without doubt one of the best - an early Depeche Mode styled jaunt, it positively drips 80s synthpop influences.
With the band at their most playful, Metronomy come loose amidst the ether of the bleep-laden-soundwaves before diving into a rich pool of funky Spandau Ballet guitar riffs - it's deliciously funky, quirky to the point of colour-bursting brilliance, and most importantly, summarises within one song everything that made The English Riviera one of the albums of 2011.
Devon three-piece These Reigning Days already have some very attractive lines to their musical CV - they're fresh from supporting Mercury nominated darlings Metronomy and 2012 sees them lined-up to headline Exmouth Festival.
Their debut single Changes feels like a thing of contrasts - ranging from flanged XX-style ambiance in the verses to a more robust White Lies/Courteeners-esque steady wall of sound in the chorus. It's impassioned, sonically involving music that understands that you can still be adventurous without pushing musical boundaries to their limits.
It's a great first taste of what looks set to be a highly promising album from the band, pencilled in for a summer release.
Changes is released on the 20th February.
The band play the following dates later this month:
Wednesday 18th Jan @ Bull and Gate, Islington, London
Thursday 26th Jan @ The Spinning Wheel, Paignton
Wednesday 1st Feb @ The Fleece Bristol, 12 St Thomas St, Bristol
Every year, there's a precise moment when the collective music industry and all associated holds their breath, tense in the anticipation for an announcement of twelve magical names.
Those names represent the final shortlist of what the Mercury Music Prize consider the best 12 British albums released in the past year, from which, one will receive the ultimate accolade of winning the prize itself.
Whatever you might think of the prize, its impact on the industry is undeniable and the winner benefits from an impossibly immense boost to their sales. It's like the floodgates of popular music have been swept open, money rushing out of wallets as the public flock to their local HMV to purchase this piece of affirmed culture.
This year, the Mercury shortlist is announced at 11.30 am on the morning 19th July. Put that date in your calendars - Lauren Laverne will be revealing the list from the heart of trendy Covent Garden; and what's more, for the first time ever, you'll be able to watch the whole thing live via a live video stream on Facebook.
I read a fascinating article in the paper a couple of weeks ago saying that at the time (before the final shortlist was decided), the odds for Metronomy to win were something like 33/1 - Now, I'm not a gambling man but that looks incredible; imagine the pay-out on that! I reckon the Metronomy guys have a good chance of nabbing the award too; their album is one of the most consistent and inventive of the year.
Now, the Mercury prize's entry period is any British album released between July 2010 and July 2011, but to keep things simple, here are a few of my own personal favourites from 2011 so far...
Wonderland - Wonderland
Pet Shop Boys - The Most Incredible Thing
Nerina Pallot - Year Of The Wolf
Metronomy - The English Riviera
Katy B - On A Mission
Jessie J - Who You Are
James Blake - James Blake
Friendly Fires - Pala
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Clare Maguire - Light After Dark
Chapel Club - Palace
Adele - 21
As one of the catchiest tracks from The English Riviera, in many ways The Bay was the logical choice for Metronomy's next single. With that rubbery bass bounce and a classic Joe Mount vocal, the track also proved to be a real live highlight too when I caught the band on tour a couple of months ago.
The video for the track fits so well - opening with a sweeping panoramic shot of the camera surging over the ocean. Indeed, if any track from the album encapsulates in one go the essence of what The English Riviera stands for, it's this one.
With its clever cinematography and glossy montage of shots, the video at times looks more like a TV ad or movie trailer - and that's what makes it so brilliant. It's that glossy 'riviera sheen' nailed down to perfection.
Built on a foundation of inherent Metronomy quirkiness, The Bay remains a standout track by the band - but now with added video delights, we can really see them riding a sleek, streamlined wave to the top of their game.
Aside from Metronomy's Joe Mount feeding us tit-bits of info about Nicola's solo project, details regarding her music have been fairly thin on the ground. This tweet by fashion stylist Joel Dash possibly tells us a little more however...
"Previewed Nicola Roberts first solo single 'Dance To The Beat of My Drum' (produced by Diplo & Switch).. New sound = MAEHJOREEE!"
All very exciting. And we love the usage of 'MAJAH', as previously employed on Twitter by Rihanna... (and others)
Diplo and Switch are also behind the new Beyonce track, which was made available on iTunes earlier today.
If the likes of Metronomy's English Riviera album has got you hooked on shimmery, beautiful electronica and you fancy some more to ease yourself into the summer, Fenech Soler's new single Stop & Stare will be perfect for you.
You may have heard one of the many brilliant mixes they've produced for other artists in recent years, one of my favourites is their take on Andy Bell's Running Out.
As for Stop & Stare itself, it's a glossy concoction of flickering synths and twinkling 80s keyboard melodies that blaze away like starlight. It also packs one hell of a chorus, a rarity perhaps in their genre. The formula clearly seems to be working, with Stop & Stare being B-listed on Radio 1.
The Shepherd's Bush Empire never lets me down. There's something about this venue, steeped in its ornate mystery and tight intimacy that brings out the best in every artist that performs here. And for Metronomy, who release their third album The English Riviera this week, they came into their element tonight. The venue was packed, the crowd full of vigour and party spirit; it wasn't long before the standing section looked more like a nightclub dancefloor. Bodies twitched and revolved to the band's frenetic electro rhythms, day-glo rave sticks being thrown down from the upper balconies to disappear in the sea of revelry below.
In a genius bit of staging, the band wore what can only be described as light pads attached to the front of their shirts - these would dramatically flick on at various points in their set, synchronised perfectly to the music. Forget stage pyrotechnics or a luxurious backdrop of visuals, tonight, this inspired bit of costumery provided ten times the atmosphere. A stark, vibrantly coloured range of lighting effects washed over the band throughout, a rainbow cloak that brought forth visions of summer Mediterranean nights.
And it's this aspect the band aimed so precisely for with The English Riviera - the albums tracks interspersed here with a handful of fan favourites. Having had the new album on constant repeat on my iPod this past week, the thing that struck me most tonight was just how bigger everything sounded. One of Metronomy's biggest charms is that for a synth band, every part of their sonic-makeup sounds so organic and handcrafted. Every track is a work of love; you can almost feel every step of processes that went into their creation. And in the live setting, each and every song was elevated into an anthemic dance master-work. And the crowd lapped it up, the cheers of appreciation bookending each number testament to that.
Equally charming was frontman Joe Mount's demeanour. So many bands can come across as either immensely cocky or overly meek and stilted when performing live, but Mount carried himself with effortless cool. You could really sense the mutual respect between band and audience here and Mount even found time to joke about the public transport disruption on the night. Safe to say, it hadn't kept the fans away. There was a delightful shot of distinctly British wit to everything Metronomy did, a particular highlight being the music-statues-esque dance moves.
Tracks like The Bay and Heartbreaker reared up as if fueled by pure living spirit; I spied a fair few people down below crowd-surfing, as if the surging forward on the surging pulse of the tracks themselves. With its 80s-sounding riff, Corrine was the ultimate in toe-tapping energy. The louder the crowd cheered, the harder they danced, the more Metronomy enveloped themselves into their songs. Trapped in the tight confines of the Shepherd's Bush Empire, all this energy had nowhere to go, and you could physically feel the music bouncing off the walls, reflecting and refracting off the band themselves, spurring them.
Culminating in current single The Look, the band then walked back on to a rapturously received encore, Metronomy. You need only look at the heaps of acclaim The English Riviera has received from the music press to realise that this is Metronomy's time to shine, their moment. And tonight at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, that moment came alive.
Metronomy's Joe Mount has revealed a little more about Nicola Roberts' solo album - "We did two tracks together, one of them is a bit more electronic-sounding" he told The Sun. "She was really into Robyn and M.I.A. I was surprised but it's a good place for her to start."
Can we expect some tracks like Paper Planes and With Every Heartbeat on Nicola's solo album then? We'll just have to wait and see...
As it stands, Joe Mount from Metronomy's quotes about Nicola are pretty much the only bits and pieces of info we have regarding the Girls Aloud star's solo album. And speaking to the Daily Star's Kim Dawson, he had a little more to reveal about the project:
"Working with Nicola was one of the best recording experiences I've ever had. She's really talented and will surprise a lot of people."
Metronomy's The English Riviera seems to be swiftly becoming one of those 'buzz' albums that everyone is talking about as newspapers and blogs around the country sing its praises. But in this instance, that praise is entirely justified.
Take single The Look for example, with its New Order-esque basslines. It's full of trippy, retro synthesizer riffs that could be straight out of Blade Runner soundtrack. Meanwhile, Corinne is like early Depeche Mode or OMD - a Just Can't Get Enough for the 21st century. There's even some funky Spandau Ballet guitar in there too. From start to end this album reads like a kind of 80s who's who compendium of influences; the trademark elements of so many bands melded into a sound that is carefree, joyous and almost childlike.
The real skill of Metronomy though comes in the fact that throughout all these touchstones of influence, it is always the band's own sound that remains most prevalent. Every song comes under their own distinct stamp. Within that individual stamp comes a tranquility, a funky vibe conjured up from rubbery basslines like those on laid-back We Broke Free. As the track slowly slides along, flowing and wave-like, guitar is worked in subtly - becoming part of the track instead of distracting from it.
The overall tropical summer feel that surrounds the whole album is at its strongest on Everything Goes My Way, with added female vocals mixing things up a bit. She Wants has more of the feel of a Duran Duran album track - a rustling, clicky beat driving a sense of low menace while guitar lines stab away.
Standing opposed to this, Trouble has the delicate kind of guitar work that made the Foals' Total Life Forever such a critical darling. Working in jazzy influences too the sunshine is almost palpable here. Indeed, the Foals album is the closest comparison to The English Riviera - there's a similar vision in the kind of world the band is attempting to create, and with so many different layers of sound going on here, it's a vastly involving world.
It's on tracks like The Bay where the album achieves what it sets out to do best - funky basslines and quirky lyrics reaching a crescendo in high powered choruses that fade away to twitching, minimal verses. There's a restless energy here, that feeling of when you've had a couple of beers and have that irresistible urge to dance. And it's important not to forget that on many levels this is fundamentally a dance album. Maybe not in the traditional sense of what that entials, but the music is most definitely danceable - and seeing it in that aspect gives it a whole extra dimension.
Loving Arm is full of Doctor Who-esque swirling synthesizers that sound so retro they're practically prehistoric - the track is full of primeval charm, as if it's some kind of fossil dug up on the shores of a windswept beach. Here, as with so much of the album, the band strikes the perfect equilibrium between indie, pop and dance. That sense of menace returns, but it's a menace that goes hand in hand with a bewitching beauty. It's like the old fairy tales, the danger that you can't help but fall for.
Joe Mount's vocals seem at complete ease throughout the album; he feels comfortable in his own skin, utterly confident in the message and sound he wants to convey. That's what The English Riviera is all about, a fantasy land existing exactly to his specifications; a fantasy land that for a while, we are invited into too.
In case you haven't heard, Joe Mount of trendy electropop band Metronomy has been working with Nicola Roberts on some of the material for her forthcoming solo album. He's done a couple of interviews recently where he lets on a little about what the two of them have been cooking up in the studio. It's all very exciting stuff!
Speaking to NME back in December he revealed "She's incredibly talented, she wrote a lot of melodies and lyrics and stuff," he said. "I've done a lot of this kind of thing with different people and it's been most enjoyable to work with her."
And then this week in an interview with DIY he spoke a little about how they came to be working together:
"We did a few things… I've always been really interested in writing with different people, and I've always been in to pop music and found it interesting. For a while I've been doing lots of little bits and bobs with people."
"An email just came through saying "do you wanna have a go at writing some songs with her". It's like "well, yeah". It's a no-brainer for me. I'm a fan."
"It's such a ridiculous situation to find yourself in that you're going from seeing this person on TV or in tabloids, and the next thing you're embarking on this creative adventure together. You're suddenly in probably the most intimate situation, where you're talking about lyrics and song meanings. It's very surreal but very enjoyable."
We literally cannot wait to hear Nicola's solo material!
Metronomy's album The English Riviera is released April 11th and can be pre-ordered from iTunes here.
We've been hearing some rather exciting news on Twitter that the debut solo album from lovable pop starlet Nicola Roberts might be coming out as early as April this year and that it's already all recorded and ready to go! Could this mean that we'll be hearing the first single from Miss Roberts on the airwaves very soon indeed? We've already heard how she's been working with trendy band Metronomy on the album and judging by Girls Aloud tracks like It's Magic, Nicola's album could very well be one of the best albums of 2011. We can't wait!
