The Last Shadow Puppets:
Everything You've Come to Expect:
Domino:
LP/DLXLP/CD/DD:
Out Now:
Recent tour-dates have all but sold out, a true indicator as to just highly anticipated album number two has become for Kane and Turner. As opener Aviation roars into view, it's not surprising - sophisticated indie-pop that doesn't sound too far removed from Cherry Ghost, Turin Brakes, Richard Hawley and the like is sure to shift a few units and deservedly so.
Sounding neither like Turner's Arctic Monkeys megastars or Kane's raucous retro-rock, Everything You've Come To Expect doesn't necessarily live up to its title. Sure, you get some trademark '60s influence that both songwriters adore and fuse into their day jobs but the overall sound is far more widescreen than the duo's 2008 debut-album The Age of the Understatement. The subject matter borders on misogyny though and the deluxe inner-sleeve sadly views like a Diesel ad campaign.
Highpoints include the singles Aviation and Miracle Aligner, both soaked in strings, drama and atmosphere without compromising urgency or quality songwriting. Used To Be My Girl and She Does the Woods have an air of the mysterious about them while Pattern delivers on the pop-o-meter scale with carefree mid-tempo gay abandon - and loads of strings again. Some of Everything You've Come to Expect does tend to blur into one long faux-soul melange but it's varied enough overall to hold your attention.
It's all very well arranged and easily one of the year's most rewarding listens so far, although groaning with too many smart-arsed riffs that are functional rather than emotional. But isn't that what you've come to expect from two of the nation's key writers, even if the whole long-player seems to contain a certain degree of male swagger? Here's a lyric to leave you with - "I ain't got anything to lick without you baby". Indeed.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Everything You've Come to Expect:
Domino:
LP/DLXLP/CD/DD:
Out Now:
Sounding neither like Turner's Arctic Monkeys megastars or Kane's raucous retro-rock, Everything You've Come To Expect doesn't necessarily live up to its title. Sure, you get some trademark '60s influence that both songwriters adore and fuse into their day jobs but the overall sound is far more widescreen than the duo's 2008 debut-album The Age of the Understatement. The subject matter borders on misogyny though and the deluxe inner-sleeve sadly views like a Diesel ad campaign.
Highpoints include the singles Aviation and Miracle Aligner, both soaked in strings, drama and atmosphere without compromising urgency or quality songwriting. Used To Be My Girl and She Does the Woods have an air of the mysterious about them while Pattern delivers on the pop-o-meter scale with carefree mid-tempo gay abandon - and loads of strings again. Some of Everything You've Come to Expect does tend to blur into one long faux-soul melange but it's varied enough overall to hold your attention.
It's all very well arranged and easily one of the year's most rewarding listens so far, although groaning with too many smart-arsed riffs that are functional rather than emotional. But isn't that what you've come to expect from two of the nation's key writers, even if the whole long-player seems to contain a certain degree of male swagger? Here's a lyric to leave you with - "I ain't got anything to lick without you baby". Indeed.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆