Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt return finally, after 24 years, with an album of smooth, but melancholy electro-pop/dance, walking a dark, nostalgic path through various niche musical trends through the decades since their 1984 debut, Eden. The lead single, and former Song of the Day, Nothing Left To Lose (“I need a thicker skin, the pain keeps setting in … I’ve been here before, tell me what to do … I’ve set fire to my pride … kiss me while the world decays”), sets the mood with Thorn’s forlorn but distinctively strong vocal style across resonant two-step garage skip beats and deep-wobble bass line, but there’s far more double-edged darkness to indulge in across the album, such as the intricate electronica and retro keyboards of No One Knows We’re Dancing with its succinct character delineations and odd resilience, Lost’s mesmeric chiming sounds and deadpan grief (“I lost my mind last week, I lost by place, I lost my bags, I lost my biggest client, I lost my place, I lost my perfect job, then I just lost it … I lost my mother”), the ambience and piano of Run A Red Light, or the slow-motion despair of Time and Time Again (“maybe we were born at the wrong time”), although Caution To The Wind, with gentle handclaps and images of a “cathedral” of stars is an uplifting dance track seeking joy and escapism (“all stars align, shimmer and shine … caution to the wind, let me in”). There are oddball moments such as the slightly disturbing weirdly Auto-Tune-like vocal brief effect on When You Mess Up, and the ironic deadpan of closing track Karaoke, considering Thorn’s utter antithesis to live performance. Filled with delicate musicality and a sense of nostalgia alongside the tunefully, mostly downbeat in lyric and mood. Out on Buzzin’ Fly Records / Virgin.
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