Music review: Love Letters from Metronomy

Fanta Sylla, Staff Writer

Metronomy’s last album “The English Riviera” propelled Joseph Mount and his band to the forefront of U.K.’s pop music in 2011. It contained pop gems like “The Look,” “Corinne” and “The Bay.” Though each Metronomy album is unique, this new release will feel especially different for those who have been following them since their debut project “Pip Paine” in 2006.

One noticeable evolution is how Joseph Mount uses his voice in the two last albums. He’s more of a musician than a talented singer, but throughout their albums his voice is more confident and mingles with the other instruments well.

In Metronomy’s new and fourth album, “Love Letters,” there is a song called “Month of Sundays.” The prospect of an entire month made of Sundays inspires a feeling difficult to define. Sunday is the last day of the week, the end of something good. It’s the transition to a new week and a new working day which can make us feel melancholic, sad and dreadful. Yet, anything can still happen on Sundays. This strange feeling cannot be defined with words but it can be translated through music. This is exactly what the new album succeeds to do.

The album starts with an acoustic-like song “The Upsetter” that features catchy choruses that will be the motif of this album. We also found choruses in the following song “I’m Aquarius,” whose clip video was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The eponymous single “Love Letters” pushes these choruses even further. They are louder and seem to come from an album of The Mamas and Papas or ABBA.

The whole album is coherent. The influences are Motown, northern blues and… Metronomy’s unique sound. It alternates between outdated, soul-influenced gems (“Months of Sundays”) and more futuristic sounds (“Boy Racers”). It’s sometimes sad like a disappearing sunset (“The Most Immaculate Haircut,” “Never Wanted”) and suddenly cheerful (“Reservoir”). It’s an eclectic album that is perfect for this weird weather outside. For sunny days, and cloudy as well. It is worth a listen.