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Years pass, but eight are long - said Adriano Celentano around the middle of the fabulous' 60s. It's been just eight years from the moment Alex Turner and Miles Kane have recorded the first record together as The Last Shadow Puppets. An eternity for a band, a period quite acceptable when you consider that the Puppets are a side / super group formed by the leaders of Arctic Monkeys and Rascals, with the producer / drummer James Ford (half of Simian Mobile Disco) and bassist Zachary Dawes.
last-shadow-puppets everythingNonostante has just pointed out that we are dealing with a side project, the statement of the boy of the street Gluck expresses a concept incontrovertible: 8 years are actually long. Many things can happen, especially when at stake is the fateful transition from "entities" to "enta". There you can transfer to Los Angeles continuing to churn out discs of great value with the Arctic Monkeys (in the case of Alex Turner), or you can decide to leave the Rascals and pursue a solo career, working in the meantime also on its image (here talking playboy Miles Kane). Finally can (legitimately) to change some musical references.
The Age Of The Understatement slamming it appeared on the cover a picture in black and white taken from a photo shoot in 1962; very appropriate, considering that the (beautiful) disc with both hands fished from the imaginary baroque pop of that era there. On the cover of the new Everything You've Come to Expect towers instead a young Tina Turner dancing in a photograph taken in 1969. It might seem overwhelming to search metaphors at all costs, but the statements of Kane (who has publicly expressed the infatuation Isaac Hayes and the Style Council) reinforce the idea that the setting for the '60s pop is no longer so radical. The starting point remains the same, but there's been an evolution: now the band's vision is broader and takes into account stylistic perspectives that engage in other historical periods (in this case 70).
Here it is explained the harpsichord that sticks in the psychedelic title track, the intention funk that you do not expect of The Element Of Surprise, the garage punk vein (rosewater) of Bad Habits and the triumphal march (with a rhythmic which follows that of the Bolero by Ravel) Sweet Dreams, Tn. Alongside these songs that explore - albeit partially - new ways, there are also tracks like Miracle Aligner, Dracula Teeth and Used To Be My Girl, which reassure the listener remaining in territories already sifted previously.
At best experiments shine (see Sweet Dreams, Tn and Everything You've Come To Expect), at worst simply "work" (in this regard nothing I taken down by the thought that the single Bad Habits would be half without 'string arrangement by the very talented Owen Pallet, a key component for the sound aesthetics of Puppets). On the other hand the talented Alex Turner has never been questioned. It is rather the harmony of the couple that raises some doubts: you feel a palpable gap between the two talking heads, which today give the impression of being two (valid) polar opposites that interact, whereas in the first record their personalities seemed to merge with more naturally.
The inevitable confrontation with The Age Of The Understatement then leaves little doubt: the debut sounded fresher and seemed more convinced of the new work. There was a different energy, and perhaps (but this is my personal view) more concentration. It also had to do with other thick texts, and the desire to offer a tribute to a precise historical period reinforced the Turner and Kane merits. This does not mean that Everything You've Come To Expect an album is to be avoided, indeed (for avercene, final as The Dream Synopsis): simply bow to (presumably high) expectations of those who waited eight long years to hear that that - taking a cue from the title of the album, which sounds like an invitation - may on balance be considered a promise not completely maintained or a redundant confirmation. Nothing less, nothing more.
