Hot Chip’s fifth album, 2012’s excellent ‘In Our Heads’ (review), was a career highlight in this writer’s opinion. Now their frontman – synth-pop’s coolest supergeek Alexis Taylor – is back with his second solo LP, ‘Await Barbarians’.
It’s a fine collection of intimate, slow-burning, understated songs. The sparse instrumentation is refreshing in an age of overwrought production – the soundscapes are forged from plaintive, reverb-drenched piano, sombre strings, and simple looped synths, meshed together by Taylor’s unmistakable voice.
It’s a melancholic affair, especially the sublime ‘Elvis Has Left The Building’, where Taylor juxtaposes religious imagery with legendary musicians to softly satirise our deification of celebrities. In short: beautiful.
7/10
Words: Benji Taylor
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Listen to ‘Await Barbarians’ in full via Deezer, below…
