When Metronomy Forever isn't beckoning you into your own personal dance party, it's laying out atmospheric jams appropriate for soundtracking a night in with your boo, a jaunt through the city or a wistful gaze out the window of a moving train.
Uncharacteristic of the lavish tendencies we've come to expect from Metronomy, their latest record dwindles into minimalism more than slightly, with atmospheric interludes outweighing the more dynamic tracks nearly two to one. But with three years in the making since Summer 08, the band have managed to toss in a healthy dose of their distinctly lush electro-pop. "Lying Now," "Forever Is a Long Time" and "The Light," for example, all paint Caribou-reminiscent sonic portraits, with subdued beats laid under recurrent vocal hiccups, robotic burps and shivering synths.
The album is front-heavy with a menagerie of full-on bangers ("Salted Caramel Ice Cream," "Lately" and "Whitsand Bay") that will render your resistance to bopping along nearly impermissible. Conversely, toward the middle of the album, songs like "The Light" and "Walking in the Dark" become lackadaisical excuses to extend the length of the album to a drawling 17 tracks.
But the only true misstep on Metronomy Forever is the mid-album bookmark track, "Sex Emoji," a song the band may have more wisely chosen to omit entirely. With piercing falsetto and repetitive lyrical drivel strewn throughout, it is easily the most skippable track on an otherwise delightful and temperate record.
In the album's third act, a stripped-down "Upset My Girlfriend," followed by "Wedding Bells," serve to complete a lengthy collection of sad, yet sweaty, romance-laden compositions. When there is nothing left to say, Metronomy Forever concludes on a helpless note on "Ur Minxtape," much like the realization you've sent drunken texts to your ex when the unwelcome daylight emerges in the wee hours of a heartbreak-fuelled bender.
While the album's emergence is wholly indicative of frontman Joseph Mount's supposed "need to feed his children," in Metronomy Forever, the band have nonetheless blessed the world with at least a handful of tracks worthy of even the snobbiest dance floors.
(Because)Uncharacteristic of the lavish tendencies we've come to expect from Metronomy, their latest record dwindles into minimalism more than slightly, with atmospheric interludes outweighing the more dynamic tracks nearly two to one. But with three years in the making since Summer 08, the band have managed to toss in a healthy dose of their distinctly lush electro-pop. "Lying Now," "Forever Is a Long Time" and "The Light," for example, all paint Caribou-reminiscent sonic portraits, with subdued beats laid under recurrent vocal hiccups, robotic burps and shivering synths.
The album is front-heavy with a menagerie of full-on bangers ("Salted Caramel Ice Cream," "Lately" and "Whitsand Bay") that will render your resistance to bopping along nearly impermissible. Conversely, toward the middle of the album, songs like "The Light" and "Walking in the Dark" become lackadaisical excuses to extend the length of the album to a drawling 17 tracks.
But the only true misstep on Metronomy Forever is the mid-album bookmark track, "Sex Emoji," a song the band may have more wisely chosen to omit entirely. With piercing falsetto and repetitive lyrical drivel strewn throughout, it is easily the most skippable track on an otherwise delightful and temperate record.
In the album's third act, a stripped-down "Upset My Girlfriend," followed by "Wedding Bells," serve to complete a lengthy collection of sad, yet sweaty, romance-laden compositions. When there is nothing left to say, Metronomy Forever concludes on a helpless note on "Ur Minxtape," much like the realization you've sent drunken texts to your ex when the unwelcome daylight emerges in the wee hours of a heartbreak-fuelled bender.
While the album's emergence is wholly indicative of frontman Joseph Mount's supposed "need to feed his children," in Metronomy Forever, the band have nonetheless blessed the world with at least a handful of tracks worthy of even the snobbiest dance floors.