Man Without Country – Foe
The title track sets out a pretty epic stall – Pet Shop Boys teaming with Laurie Anderson pretty well sums up the incredible sheen and art pop style. It also goes a long way towards showing why Band Of Skulls – to name one – are using them as remixers. Probably worth mentioning you can download mixes by others from the band’s Soundcloud. AND a free 5 track sampler.
‘Puppets’ is a glorious sound wash with oblique lyrics that could be aimed at the likes of UKIP. The album shimmers and shines while seeming to be rooted in real world concerns.
Despite the smooth Pop there are at times echoes of the glacial Prog of some A-ha or the smarts of Prefab Sprout . Even the marvellous Pop of The Korgis .
‘King Complex’ rips into “Heat” style vacuous celebrity with a panache that would surely see it favourably featured in… Heat. A rippling synth that brings to mind ‘Crystal Lake’ by Grandaddy leads to the decaying finale.
‘Iceberg’ is little darker – a little more like ‘Black Celebration’ era Depeche Mode – and leads into what would be a slightly harder side two. A bubbling sequencer and bass squelches on ‘Closet Addicts Anonymous’ could easily rock a stadium with live rhythm and guitar. By the time the starting pulse of ‘Inflammable Heart’ leads into an epic drama that would happily soundtrack attack ships off the shoulder of Orion I feel I’m in the presence of the next great synth pop band. Go get those downloads.