Metronomy

During 2013, a man with curly hair regularly checked into Toe Rag Studios in order to finish his anticipated fourth album. He brought with him with a passion for The Zombies, an affection for Love, and a ridiculous enthusiasm for Sly & The Family Stone. He is already known for writing great songs, crafting his lyrics with care, and pushing pop melodies into fabulous shapes. Joseph Mount, from Totnes in Devon, is the lead singer and architect of Metronomy. His new album, “Love Letters”, has a title that speaks volumes about sensations and modes of communication, about things that have always been there, and will always be here. This is a record that wants to be timeless. In its execution, “Love Letters” tries to do fresh things in an old-fashioned way. It takes richer methods of recording and injects them with the shock of the new – of tight electronics, and experiments in sound. It does so not to be retro, but to embrace the quality standards of the past. It also aims to be up there with the greats. It helps, of course, that Metronomy have had an incredible few years. 2011's “The English Riviera” took a West Coast sunshine spirit to Britain's south-west, and gained many plaudits, including a Mercury nomination. They also sold out the Royal Albert Hall, toured Europe and North America extensively - many bands would wallow in those glories, but not them. As a result, Metronomy's new songs are bold and ambitious, but the sweet spirit they've always been known for still lingers within them. Melancholy still lurks in those hooks; loneliness still gleams along their edges.

These are songs that carry you up and down in tides of feeling, in waves of pure sound. They also inject modern situations with timeless sentiments. ‘The Upsetter’ is about having no reception when you want to send a message to someone special, for instance, and about the memory of listening to music when you were young. ‘Monstrous’ is about holding on tight to everything you love, in a world you don't understand. ‘Reservoir’ is about a place near where Mount's parents live, where glittering keyboards mimic “heartbeats drifting together”. ‘Month Of Sundays’ shimmers its emotions through bright, shining guitars. All show the warmth, richness and depth being added to the Metronomy sound. New musical spirits inhabit this album, too. ‘I'm Aquarius’ was inspired by Diana Ross and The Supremes' 1969 album, “Let The Sunshine In”, full of psychedelic atmospheres, and gorgeous backing vocal shoop-shoops. ‘Boy Racers’ came next, then ‘Call Me’, driven by glittering organ lines, and the exhilarating title track, with a four-to-the-floor beat, skipping between Motown and Northern Soul. These songs go places Metronomy never have before, and they do so spectacularly. All on a record where old friends take our hands, and lead us somewhere new. It's 2014. It's time to rewrite the old story.