Torquay rising...
A lot has happened since 2008. Gone are the days when we used to spend our summers smurfing round dance floors to a thousand bands who all sounded like the Rapture crossed with the soundtrack from your favourite Megadrive game. Chillwave, financial crashes, and the return of surf rock have meant the world has been forced to move on, and like everyone else, Metronomy has had to adapt.
With their new album called ‘The English Riviera’, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the band were following in the footsteps of MGMT in making some far-out cosmic surf record, but that couldn’t be father than the truth. Part love letter to the Devonshire coast and part concept album about a semi-fictionalised version of the so-called sunshine coast, this is a record where nothing is what it seems.
It may greet you with the sound of faded music hall sing-songs, circling seagulls and crashing waves, but any quaint notion that this will be a celebration of ice-cream, buckets and spades, and donkey rides are quickly dispelled by the ominous synth lines that creep into your brain from the first song onwards. Yep, despite the odd pop-lick and Blur-esque moment, this is a dark record that at times feels like OMD trying to write about the aftermath of a cruise-missile strike on Weymouth.
Often cold and in some ways detached, it’s perhaps no accident that the cover looks like an Edward Hopper painting…
Metronomy - She Wants by im'aprovidergirl
You guys have been away for a long time. What's been filling your days?
Although on paper it seems like we've been away for three years or something, in reality we’ve only taken like twelve months out. The last record came out, and then we spent eighteen months touring, playing festivals and writing the new album, so we only ended up spending six months in our pants. It’s been all work really.
I suppose writing the record takes some time right?
Well, you say that, but we had to squeeze in all the writing and recording in between visits to Australia. It’s weird to think that it’s been three years; for me it seems like no time at all.
Would it be fair to say you’ve fallen out of love with London?
Not really. When we wrote the last record I was living in London and going out every night, and I think the last record was me just trying to put all that into an album. I haven’t fallen out of love with London though, but after you’ve lived here for three to four years it stops being new and exciting and starts being somewhere you live.
For me, I think I’ve got to the age where it's time I moved to the country. I’ve lived in cities for a long time, but I grew up in the countryside, and I’m starting to get pangs to move back.
It's a massive cliché to say that your third album sees you growing up, but it does seem to be the case...
Yeah, I guess so in a way. I’ve been thinking about this a bit recently, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is something that happens to every band that makes it as far as a third album. You feel that you’re up and running as a band, the pressure comes off and you feel a lot more confident.
Yeah, but when you get stable, isn’t there less things to write about? It happened to Rod Stewart…
Not really. I think whenever you’re trying to write an album there’s points when you can’t come up with ideas. But no, this one was a total pleasure.
There seems to be a big soft rock influence on the album. Are you guy’s secret Chris Rea fans or something?
Chris Rea? I wouldn’t sink that far! I’ve been getting into bands that I shouldn’t for the last couple of years now. I went through a massive Hall and Oates phase for a couple of months, listened to Steely Dan and obviously loved Fleetwood Mac. I think that kind of music sort of fitted with what I wanted for the new record, but I’d never say we’ve gone as low as Chris Rea.
Whoa? What’s wrong with Chris Rea? He soundtracked every long car journey of my childhood!
Did he? I feel sorry for you. I only know 'Driving Home for Christmas' and that other one that someone sampled for a dance record. My parents made me listen to Simply Red whenever we took a car trip...
Simply Red is lower than Chris Rea
Yeah, I think you’re probably right
Metronomy play the Shepherd's Bush Empire this Saturday and will be appearing at this years Lovebox Festival. 'The English Riveria' is out now.
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