Handwritten love letter
In keeping with their continued evolution from their electronic dance band beginnings, Londoners Metronomy's latest album Love Letters is an expertly produced analogue pop record.
It was recorded at Toe Rag Studios in London, where the White Stripes recorded Elephant a decade go. Main man Joseph Mount says the idea to record the album in an analogue studio came after realising that the recording of 2011's the English Riviera in a proper studio wasn't that much different to the home recording of his earlier output.
"Obviously it was very different but it felt essentially that the technique was similar to what I did at home," he explains.
"Really, I wanted to try and get that satisfaction that I was looking for and I just decided I would get that if I did an album without computers, and more or less hands on. I wanted it to feel like I had actually made something."
He altered his songwriting technique to suit the recording environment and was surprised to discover how his dancier songs, such as Boy Racer, turned out.
"If you record a track like that on to a computer and on to a grid, it sounds like dance music but if you record that kind of stuff with musicians, programmed stuff and a real drum kit, what you get kind of sounds like Can or Neu!, like that Krautrock kind of thing," he says.
Mount channels the feelings he got from music as a kid on opening track The Upsetter, which repeatedly name checks Tasmin Archer's 1992 one-hit wonder Sleeping Satellite.
"I was 10 years old when that record was out and I was becoming a conscious being and it just happened to coincide with me thinking about what happens when you die and I spiralled into a depression that lasted a couple of weeks," he recalls.
"I think it's funny, I try to remember when I thought like that but I just remember watching that video on TV and wondering what happens when we all die."
The opposite end of the emotional spectrum is also on show with the title track, an incredibly catchy pop gem that lured famed director Michel Gondry out of music video retirement.
Mount was more than happy to join the ranks of Daft Punk, Radiohead and Bjork in having the famed French director shoot a music video for his band.
"To work with him was just a real nice thing to do and I never thought it would happen," he says.
"To certain people seeing someone like him being involved with a band like Metronomy is a substantial stamp of approval on something and the same goes for us. It's a big deal for us and very enjoyable."
