Metronomy
The English Riviera
In many ways, 2011 was the year of Metronomy. A festival-defining Glastonbury show – on the afternoon of the opening day – set the scene for their continuing rise, which had already gotten well under way with the release of their third album, The English Riviera, in April. I came across them playing on Later with Jools Holland, and was struck by the seamless mixture of electonica, pop and funk that made up their sound. Die-hard Metronomy fans are said to be angry at the new populist direction and move away from dance/hard electronica, but for the previously uninitiated like me, this was one of the finds of the year. The introduction of two new band members, Anna Prior (drums) and Gbenga Adelekan (bass), has clearly been a masterstroke. Adelekan’s chilled soft-funk bass is perhaps the defining sound of The English Riviera (best displayed on ‘The Bay’, but evident throughout). Similarly, Anna Prior is both an excellent drummer and a talented vocalist. The counterpoint of Prior’s ‘lyrical’ female vocals with those of mainman Joseph Mount is also crucial to the sound here (take their duet on album highlight ‘Everything Goes My Way’). The overall result is a hugely catchy mix of 80s pop (in a good way), 90s dance and 2000s indie. This is a varied and ambitious – albeit at its core quite simple (take the wonderful ‘The Look’ – one piano riff is all you need if it’s awesome) – album. The English Riviera sounds little like anything else I listened to in 2011, but was better than the vast majority of records released this year. And they’re from Devon, for goodness sake…
The English Riviera
In many ways, 2011 was the year of Metronomy. A festival-defining Glastonbury show – on the afternoon of the opening day – set the scene for their continuing rise, which had already gotten well under way with the release of their third album, The English Riviera, in April. I came across them playing on Later with Jools Holland, and was struck by the seamless mixture of electonica, pop and funk that made up their sound. Die-hard Metronomy fans are said to be angry at the new populist direction and move away from dance/hard electronica, but for the previously uninitiated like me, this was one of the finds of the year. The introduction of two new band members, Anna Prior (drums) and Gbenga Adelekan (bass), has clearly been a masterstroke. Adelekan’s chilled soft-funk bass is perhaps the defining sound of The English Riviera (best displayed on ‘The Bay’, but evident throughout). Similarly, Anna Prior is both an excellent drummer and a talented vocalist. The counterpoint of Prior’s ‘lyrical’ female vocals with those of mainman Joseph Mount is also crucial to the sound here (take their duet on album highlight ‘Everything Goes My Way’). The overall result is a hugely catchy mix of 80s pop (in a good way), 90s dance and 2000s indie. This is a varied and ambitious – albeit at its core quite simple (take the wonderful ‘The Look’ – one piano riff is all you need if it’s awesome) – album. The English Riviera sounds little like anything else I listened to in 2011, but was better than the vast majority of records released this year. And they’re from Devon, for goodness sake…
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