Metronomy - The English Riviera

Joseph Mount's Metronomy started life over a decade ago as a bedroom electronic outfit. The first album is largely full of sound experiments, chip tune sounds, and failed to gain my interest. By the second album there was a clear move towards vocal electronic pop, and A Thing For Me (with its excellent accompanying music video) brought them to my attention. But I was still far from blown away.

Between that second album and now there have been a couple of changes. Bass player Gabriel Stebbing has left to pursue his own musical goals replaced by Gbenga Adelekan, and The group has added a drummer in the form of Lightspeed Champion's Anna Prior. I don't know if it's the new lineup, or if Mount has learned lessons from the many songs and artists he's remixed, but the new Metronomy is fantastic.

The English Riviera doesn't sound like somebody spending hours in his bedroom tweaking sounds and playing with computers and equipment. What we have now is the sound of a band making delicious pop music together. It's an evolution, and one I'm wholeheartedly in favour of. I love the alchemy of music. Sometimes the smallest of changes can turn even the densest lead into pure shining gold.

Mount seems to have taken some time to work on his vocals, and the work has paid dividends. He's managed to find a smooth soul falsetto that matches the new musical direction perfectly. Although with the addition of Prior on drums he no longer takes the lead vocal on all the songs.

That's not to say that this is a completely different musical beast. This is very much a Metronomy album. There are still sweeping electronic vistas, reminiscent of serious 1980s cartoons like Mysterious Cities Of Gold. Mount is still obviously very keen on playing around until he can find new and interesting sounds, but now he's using them as an ingredient in a bigger recipe rather than as the recipe entire.

So in one album, with a few slight changes Metronomy have gone from being an act I was peripherally aware of who occasionally remixed things that I listened to, to being an act I would definitely want to see if they toured. Well played indeed.