Metronomy - Nights Out (Album)
» Metronomy - Beck's Festival Bar, NSW - Thu, January 15
» Metronomy - Empire Hotel, QLD - Fri, January 16
» Metronomy - Revolver, Vic - Sat, January 17
» Metronomy - Revolver, Vic - Sat, January 17
» Metronomy announce Australian tour - November 7, 2008
When British alternative bible NME refers to your latest long-player as “the best dance album of 2008”, you know you must be doing something right. British dance group Metronomy’s latest offering, Nights Out, is an eclectic, fresh and uniquely-crafted offering that delivers in spades. Depending on how you like your dance, you may even agree with NME – as far as dance records go, Nights Out is up there with the elite.
Opening track, an instrumental intro, uses distorted, plodding horns to build an air of lethargy – Metronomy frontman Joseph Mount referred to the record as “a half-arsed concept album about going out and having a crap time” – and any dance record that begins with an almost mournful brass segment seems fairly on the money.
However, the narrative quality of Nights Out, as previously highlighted by Mount, is where the record’s brilliance shines most clearly. Whilst majority of the current dance releases are mindless, drug-induced noise assaults to spark movement in mindless, drug-induced people, this album tells a story. As the rhythm picks up in The End Of You Too, the listener believes that this “crap weekend”, as uneventful as it may be, does indeed have motion. The instrumentation is a stroke of genius – Metronomy have created sounds unheard and unrivalled in the dance records of late.
Don’t be convinced, however, that Nights Out is restricted only to art-nerds that prefer standing in corners and bopping their heads as they try to look cool – the album is not without its club-friendly cuts that will appeal to everyone. The shrill Radio Ladio contains a childlike spelling-chant that works to brilliant effect, whilst My Heart Rate Rapid screams to be played at high volumes at some obscene hour in the night. The pace is a distinctive aspect of the album; for every slow, wallowing track (this IS the soundtrack of a crap weekend, remember), is a fast electronic masterwork to combat it.
Playing as a full-length record in your home, the creative brilliance of Nights Out can’t reach its full potential, however, in a club, or even in your car whilst driving somewhere in the middle of the night, the album can be fully appreciated. With all its accolades and creative intelligence, any weekend with Metronomy as the soundtrack isn’t going to be so crap after all.
