Surely the Last Shadow Puppets should have recorded the newest Bond theme. Their retro symphonic pop sound created by Britain’s bright young things would have fit the current Bond franchise’s old-meets-new MO perfectly. But I digress.
The Age of the Understatement is a happy surprise. While side projects often amount to little more than an artist’s unlistenable self-indulgence, Miles Kane (of the Rascals), Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), and James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) have made an album that not only doesn’t sound like their “day” bands, but is worth listening to.
The music is sweeping and dramatic, falling somewhere between the score to a spaghetti western and the sophisticated pop of the Divine Comedy. The drama created by the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra collides with the scrappy indie vocal melodies and deliveries not out of place on any Arctic Monkeys record. It’s an interesting juxtaposition and one that makes The Age of . . . sound modern, not like a novelty album.
The title track starts things off. It sounds urgent and exciting, bringing to mind a montage of action scenes from a film. From then on, it’s a little bit like listening to one long song. Which isn’t necessarily bad. What the Last Shadow Puppets have managed to achieve is an album that sounds incredibly cohesive. It’s less a collection of singles and more a set of songs to be considered as a whole. So while there are interesting moments of melody here and intriguing instrumentation there, most of the songs lack enough of a hook to be memorable on their own.
If talks of a second album prove true, it will be interesting to see where the Last Shadow Puppets go next. Their musical heroes (Scott Walker, David Bowie, et al) led them to The Age of the Understatement, but its distinctive sound almost necessitates it being a one-off. If nothing else, maybe the sound of LSP will spur young Arctic Monkeys and Rascals fans to investigate music both older and outside of the indie/pop spectrum. This album serves as the bridge.
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