First time listening to them and this is nothing like I expected. I love the UK Garage undertones. I wonder if I was mistaking them for another act with a similar name because I thought I was going to be greeted with indie pop. I need to dive into their discography asap.
if you like the garage vibes, listen to walking wounded and temperamental asap their whole discography is great, they start off as a kind of jazzy jangle pop outfit, spend a minute in sophistipop, and just as that's about to get too cloying, they draw their energies inward and make amplified heart, one of the best/only(?) bossa nova-hybrid records ever made, which contains their eventual big club hit ("missing") which then influences the club direction of walking wounded and etc. it's awesome to witness
my favorite of their records is the language of life, which is right in the middle of their sophistipop era and which is like a warm bath, but it's not like amplified heart, walking wounded, or temperamental aren't its equals. insanely consistent band
The fact they can go from this to this The range!! I love that particular feeling when you suddenly get into a band with such an extensive catalogue and that has made such an impact. I'm going to have a blast going through their work in the lead up to the new album. The earlier stuff I've heard so far has reminded me of Sade or some of Joni Mitchell's latter work while what I've heard from their 90s material (Walking Wounded in its entirety) seems to be quite an impressive reinvention for an act that was like... 7 or 8 albums deep into their career? Yeah this is extremely my shit.
So yeah I'm checking out this band for the first time (mostly due to all the press around this upcoming release) and I'm like seriously blown away and kind of embarrassed I hadn't listened to them before. Like every song on "Amplified Heart" is hitting me right now, this band is going to be my new obsession.
Listening to Language of Life is really interesting, especially now in a post The 1975 universe. I could see how this record would feel really dated and out of fashion like a decade or two ago but now it feels very of the moment. Strangely very much of its time and ahead of it, at the same time, if that makes any sense haha
Pretty great record, wish it were longer. Interview on AM says the "Spotlight" referred to in "Karaoke" is Jennifer Hudson's (in case anyone else like myself was wondering haha)
This is fantastic. The world would be a better place if more people had the empathy of “When You Mess Up”.