Ok, so I have been a fan of Metronomy's for a while, and I was waiting for their album 'The British Riviera' to come out. When it finally came out last year, I got so excited that I bought it on iTunes. Usually, I can wait and go to HMV and get a physical copy of it, but I couldn't wait this time and decided to download it via iTunes.
Metronomy are not that known of a band, but they have had their songs featured in stupid TV shows like 'Made In Chelsea', which I think has attracted the wrong kind of attention to the group. I mean, if you watch and LIKE Made in Chelsea, you have no taste... in anything.
Anyway, listening to the album made me feel like I wasn't in cold gloomy London, I felt like I was on the coast of Cornwall or Devon. The album has a certain feel to it that I guess is supposed to attract you to the area of Devon where the group are from. I'm going to start with 'The Bay', the song that attracted me to the album.
This song has a very light and bouncy feel to is, that when you're listening to it, you feel almost as if you're driving around in Devon in a convertible; just like the video:
The music video for the song, is pretty much exactly how I feel when I listen to the song, and to think that the video was actually shot in Devon? I was very impressed that the group could give it such a lovely look and feel, that would automatically make one wish to be there with them.
Now everyone that has been to Devon knows that the groups depiction of the area is well, not accurate. It's not always sunny, and it doesn't half look as glorious as it looks in the video, but you can begin to look past that once you hear the song over the video. It's glorifying and actually, for the 4 minutes that I was watching the video, I wanted to be in Devon.
With it's rippling base riff from bass guitarist Gbenga, the song just has you in the mood for some sunshine and makes you feel as if you are in another place, rather than in a cold place like London, or wherever you may be, and I think that is one thing about music, it should make you want to wish you were somewhere else, or you should feel as if you're somewhere else because you've spaced out so much.
That's the beauty of that song.
Ok, now moving on, I'm going to review the rest of their album, but in order, so from their intro song 'The English Riviera'.
The English Riviera puts you in Devon, the heart of the group. It post you by the sea and has the sound of seagulls, kids playing, water rushing to the shore and an accordion, the main focus in this 37 second song. If you close your eyes, you can almost imagine the coast and everything you hear being right in front of you, which I feel is pretty awesome.
That song merges perfectly into 'We Broke Free', track number 2 on the album, where we get the lead vocalist of the group, Joseph Mount, who is also referred to as just Mount, singing us though the song. This song has a psychedelic sound to it, because at points in the song, it sounds as if it is warping, but it sounds absolutely amazing. With Mount's calming and soothing voice, placed on an awesome backing track that you can tell has taken time to produce, just sets you on fire in a metaphorical way. Towards the ending of the song, a rush of "out of this world" sounds come and sweep you off your feet, almost as if the sounds of the water in 'The British Riviera' have lifted you up and you're in a wave of music, then at the end, it just drops you, kind of nowhere.
That's how that song made me feel.
Now the next song, has a weird twist to it, it has a female singing the lead vocals and Mount would just come and have one verse randomly in the song. It is as if the lead woman is singing to Mount, and he is singing back, like Cher and that other guy. This song is called 'Everything Goes My Way'. Now, this song has a more bouncy feeling. It gives the feeling of when you're at a beach with your friends and you've got your arms linked, and you're telling them about this guy that you hooked up with.
The lead vocalist in this song, has a very calm singing voice, almost like the female version of Mount's vocals. Towards the chorus, we hear backing vocals which sound pretty identical to the voice in which is singing the lead. I have imagined this as the two friends on either arm of the lead singer, having fun and laughing about the lead's problems with love. It's an awesome song, possibly one of my favourites because I can just imagine the video in my head.
Now, 'The Look'. This has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It's such an amazing song. With the accordion in the background, it once again places you in the heart of Devon, by the sea-side, or by a ride where you have the musically rides, and just makes you feel good. It has a very old 'The Smiths' sounds to it, which is something I like a lot. The video has seagulls in it, which once again reminds of a place with loads of water, but recently I have began to see Seagulls in Peckham, which is quite worrying;
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