Inventive to the point of annoyance
Who’d have thought that being in debt would make you famous these days? For the sake of five grand owed to a car scrappers’ yard, Pip has been forever immortalised in bleeps, beeps, turning-trick melodies, Aphex Twin scary skewiff twisted-face sound manipulation and electro-bounciness. Random, somewhat rusty, but classy. Seems the debut album has taken its spirit from that cheeky fucker, and in the case of something like Bearcan it actually sounds like Metronomy mainman Joseph Mount has sneaked into the same car yard to record the percussion on discarded Ladas. Fiddle around under the bonnet enough and you’ll find the pop sump full of… ok enough with the cars.
Nights Out, last year’s follow-up offering, is slightly more user-friendly, and nearly a concept album in Metronomy’s own hall of mirrors manner, right from the moment the Chinese traditional sounds of the intro-title track bank round a sky of manipulated mariachi horns and military drums. The remarkable thing about this second album is that it does, at times, sound exactly like a night out running through bars, or at least the fractured following-morning memories.
The End Of You Too lurches between indie discos playing Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, reggae cafes and 80s discos before finally leaving its mark with a half-heard bassline as if through the walls of a club. Throughout there are nods to Devo, Talking Heads, rave culture, kiddy toys and anyone whose hearts are blessed and bloody with the frolics and frustrations of trying to break out of a small town—or, more accurately, getting out of their own strange, poppy, amazing, annoyingly talented heads. Pip would understand.
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