Album Review: The Clientele – ‘Minotaur’ (Merge)
When British psych-pop revivalists The Clientele’s last album, 2009’s Bonfires on the Heath, was released, singer/guitarist Alasdair MacLean made some unsettling statements in the press to the effect that it might conceivably be the band’s swan song. A little less than a year later, the arrival of the eight-song EP Minotaur accompanies a collective exhalation of relief on the part of Clientele fans, thankful that their beloved U.K. moodmeisters are in fact still carrying on. The Clientele has a history of releasing EPs that are much more than mere stopgaps between full-length albums, and Minotaur is no exception. The fragile, Nick Drake-meets-Felt feel of the band’s best tunes is still strongly in evidence here, with MacLean’s breathy, reverb-soaked voice delivering mysterious, evocative lyrics while gentle, atmospheric layers of guitar, keyboards, and violin create a misty, crepuscular sonic shroud that gives each track a haunting quality. MacLean’s melodic knack remains unerring, giving each song easy access to the inside of the listener’s head, the better to impart his inscrutable observations. Exceptions: piano nocturne “No. 33” and spoken-word piece “The Green Man,” both of which will surely find their own pathways into your consciousness.
Fuente: LimeWire Music Blog
