Metronomy
O2
Academy
13th
March 2014
Metronomy, alongside the likes of Foals and
Bombay Bicycle Club, have slowly and unassumingly found themselves among the
biggest bands in Britain. Just as comfortable on the front cover of NME as they
are on the bedroom walls of sixth form girls, they’ve joined this new breed of
mainstream youth culture icon based on a combination of great, populist leaning
songs and just the right amount diversity, at least musically, to make them
worth shouting about. Three albums in now, you can safely call them a mainstay
in British guitar music. They will probably never be the type of band who will
headline Leeds festival or play at The O2, but could bet your life that in six
years time they’ll still be nestled comfortably between Jools Holland and Zane
Lowe’s playlist not breaking new ground, but sitting contentedly on paths
already laid out.
New album Love Letters, as the title
might suggest, is about love, lust and all the rest. The accompanying polo
necked riddled press shots that supplemented the launch lends itself towards a
more nostalgic, schmaltzy kind of love though, as they turn down the beat and
turn up the new wave to present their idea of romance through a soft-focus
lens. The O2 Academy feels different for their show - which is the first of
their UK tour – this evening. The drum kit is colourfully illuminated, the
backdrop is a fuzzy pink set of clouds, the lights are dimmed to a deep shade
of red as the whole thing starts to feel an eighties porn movie director’s
attempt to make things cinematic. Metronomy have always played with the notion
of being cool and iconized with an obvious, self-reliant indifference that balances
them between reluctant icons and cult heroes tenuously, but effectively. The
matching burgundy suits they wear tonight ridiculous, of course they do, but
like almost everything with these guys, you feel like you’re in on the joke
with them.
This is reflected musically as well,
eptiomised by the excellent The Bay,
as Joseph Mount lingers on Berrrlin
as if he is coaxing a cat towards him whilst smoking a cigar in a velvet
dressing gown. The Look, another
highlight from second album The English
Riviera edges up the tempo, demonstrating their ability to strip funk and
disco right down to their bones into something bracingly thin whilst remaining impossibly
catchy.
And you wouldn’t go so far as to call
Metronomy minimal, but throughout the three albums - all of which are
generously dipped into tonight - their music has been characterized by a simplicity
that makes it entirely effortless to listen to. This allows the finer, yet
absolutely essential parts of their songs to act as centerpieces throughout the
records and throughout tonight’s performance, like that noodling synth on Reservoir, or the ‘Shoop-doop-ahhh’s in
current single I’m Aquarius. These
are little touches and nuances that are so distinctly and indisputably Metronomy, where not a single note feels
waste or forced, graciously offering themselves to anyone who wants them like a
show dog that enjoys affection but doesn’t rely on it. Great music doesn’t always
have to sound complicated, even if is.
Metronomy’s coherence sounds remarkably
consistent tonight. I mean, I remember seeing them at Korova in 2008, as they
struggled to pair two parts of the same song together in one of the messiest
and loosest performances this side of a psytrance rave. It very much feels like
a victory lap here in the Academy this evening, both for EVOL - who are
celebrating their tenth birthday - and for Metronomy, who are reaping the
rewards for being gleefully, completely and unflinchingly themselves.
Mike Townsend
http://www.peterguy.merseyblogs.co.uk/2014/03/metronomy-proper-ornaments-o2.html
No comments:
Post a Comment