Love Letters
10 March 2014
Because Music
3.5 stars out of 5
Metronomy’s fourth LP, Love
Letters, mixes various styles, from indie pop noodling to post-rock
moogling, but retains a unified sound and feel throughout. Joseph Mount &
Co. somehow manage to touch on both the Athens, Georgia, indie pop scene of a
decade and a half ago and the dance punk scene of post-9/11 NYC. It’s fun for
the whole family! Unless you come from a family of losers.
“I’m Aquarius” is a smooth indie soul track à la The xx, full
of nervous energy and tension. “Love Letters” is baroque electro-indie pop,
featuring a saxophone intro and a trumpet outro. The band goes deep into the
odd with “Month of Sundays,” an indie pop excursion into a parallel universe
where Mary’s Danish perhaps still exists. “Call Me” crosses over into Hot Chip
terrain, with off-beat keyboard riffs flittering over and under urgent falsetto
vocals. “The Most Immaculate Haircut” is a testament to hipster friend-ditching,
with a detour through the marsh at night. Metronomy engage full-Moog mode with
“Reservoir,” while the closing track, “Never Wanted,” is a quiet, guitar-based
lament.
While a lot of Love
Letters has a really handmade feel to it (not a bad thing at all), the compositions
are interesting and accomplished. This album should win Metronomy some fans
beyond the NME crowd, although if you pick what to listen to based exclusively
on NME then you clearly already have enough problems of your own to worry about.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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