Dear’s third album lives up to its name. If ‘Asa Breed’ was a step into the light of pop, then ‘Black City’ is a retreat into shadow. It’s still danceable, but the juddering Arthur Russell disco has been infected with a tangible paranoia.
It’s predictably brilliant; another display of Dear’s dazzling musical imagination. ‘Little People’ is euphoric space disco that mutates into something spookier when Dear’s pitched-down baritone comes in. ‘You Put A Smell On Me’ is hard-edged techno.
And then, probably for a laugh, he closes the album with a gentle ballad. Dear Matthew, I think I love you.
9/10
Words by Will Salmon
