Lapage Reviews Metronomy - 'The English Riviera'

If you are like me, every few months you will find an album that ends up getting played as your 'Go-To' album. Back in the days of physical media, it would be the CD that stayed in your player all season, and presumably before that, the sheet music that remained on the stands of your house band. These days, it's just what I first go to on Spotify if I want to listen to 'some music'.

Most important amongst these Go-To albums are the summer albums: the soundtrack that ends up being the backdrop to those sunny memories, evoking picnics and parties in years to come when that smoking-induced tickle in your throat has gone metastatic and left you bedridden. The English Riviera is my album of Summer 2011.

If you are a fan of the last two Metronomy albums, this one might be a shock. For one, only half of the current band were on the last album, so in that respect the sound is a bit different, but beyond that this album represents a much greater stylistic change from their second outing than they dared make for their sophomore effort. One friend dismissed it as 'too soft' and passed on it, but I hope you will not make the same mistake.

Fans of the old Metronomy, enter with third single from the album 'the Bay': this is definitely the closest to their past outings, and is dripping with their trademark nonchalant groove-mastery. They still have the edgy chops that made them big in the first place, but it's the fuzzier tracks that make more of an impression.

'The Look' is the best of their newer sound, presumably why they chose it as their second single (after the moodier 'She Wants'). Smothered with louche Eighties appeal, it represents a pretty exciting new direction. A lot of the album is like this, and it's pretty reminiscent of other dreamy retronauts like Destroyer: don't come here for a rousing club beat, it's all popped collars at dawn with this album.

My personal favourite of the album is 'Everything Goes My Way', wherein Joseph Mount takes a back seat to the vocals of Roxanne Clifford of Veronica Falls. This dependency will only ever relegate this to album gem status, because they are less likely to be able to promote it live, but it shows a side of Mount's composing that he hasn't really expressed before with Metronomy.

I find myself comparing this my summer album from last year: 'Black Sands' by Bonobo. Again you have a composer best known for upbeat tracks taking a sleepy summer break, and they were even released in pretty much the same week a year apart. They have beautifully distinct but vibrant allusions though: Bonobo evokes a secluded Halcyon island paradise, while Metronomy paints their 'English Riviera' in shades of seedy decadence and quality time nonchalantly wasted.

All in all, go get this album. I know that for myself it is firmly jammed in the summer CD tray of my mind, and so should it be for you.

If you like it, try: 'Kaputt' by Destroyer, 'Smother' by Wild Beasts, 'Surf Noir' by Beat Connection

If you miss old Metronomy, try: 'Zonoscope' by Cut Copy, 'From the Cradle to the Rave' by Shit Robot, 'Build with Erosion' by The Berg Sans Nipple

Other things gracing my soundholes: 'Castlemania' by Thee Oh Sees, 'Treefight for Sunlight' by Treefight for Sunlight, 'Jim Noir' by Jim Noir