Customer Reviews

Strange Geometry

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

what you get is more of that clientele sound -- nostalgic and melancholic, autumnal, romantic, painterly -- but improved by less reverb and cleaner, sharper production values, tasteful application of strings, and more melodic and tempo variation. kind of a poppier and less sexy tindersticks, or like being slightly depressed on a rainy day in your third year of college, flipping through a monograph of magritte, smoking your last cigarette, thinking about the night before...

but I really like this album. bought it after briefly listening to it at a store, but didn't 'get it' until i put it on and just sat on my bed in this whitewashed room and relaxed. the lyrics are obviosuly quite literate and delivered with a poetic rather than melodic charm. the music though singleminded remains efficiently evocative of a warm, reflective mood. they don't sound like anything from the sixties as i seem to have read a few times, but more like a mellower version of smiths, echo and the bunnymen, felt guitar rock or if anything yo la tengo's 'and then nothing...' album. though their overall aesthetic could easily be misinterpreted to be sixties-ish, i think it has more to do with their ability to keep their music consistent and endearing

i find it somewhat difficult to be remain objective when discussing the clientele--i simply adore this band. when people ask me 'what do they sound like' they're one of two bands for which i simply can't find a reference point (the arcade fire being the other). the clientele is band that sounds like nothing you've heard before, yet somehow familiar at the same time.

'strange geometry' bears more resemblence to 'suburban light' than to its predecessor, 'the violet hour.' even though 'suburban light' was a collection of singles, tracks from e.p.'s, etc, it was thoroughly cohesive album. each track seemed cut from the same cloth. 'the violet hour,' (the first proper l.p.) while evoking a similar atmospheric aesthetic, was less immediate, less engaging the 'suburban light.' 'strange geometry's' lead track and first single, 'since k got over me' is vintage clientele--slightly reverbed/delayed guitars, airy vocals, walking basslines. it's a song that would've fit nicely on 'suburban light.' (and better than any track on 'the violet hour'). this similarity, i think, is part of the clientele's appeal: you know exactly what you're getting, but despite that knowledge, you're never disappointed because it's such a unique and beautiful sound. and it seems so apropros to release this album in october because the clientele are very much an autumnal band.

the majority of the album's track are, in fact, steeped in autumnal atmosphere. as i mentioned on my review of 'suburban light,' the clientele sound sucked straight out of 1967 london. it's all about golden hues, gray skies, turning leaves, sunrises and sunsets, silhouettes, flowers, gardens, ivy, butterflies, and faded photographs. yet they pull it off. in lesser hands, the clientele might sound contrived and pretentious. thankfully alasdair maclean's vocal delivery is beguiling and compelling. he's a fine, fine vocalist, unique in every way. and as musicians the band are top notch. don't listen to the clientele casually, for there's some pretty complex arrangements within the songs--a testament to their song writing abilities. it's not easy to write complex songs that sound so darned pleasing to the ear. and it's particularly nice to hear louis phillipe's restrained string arrangements on the album. it gives the album an added depth and complexity without burdening the songs.

it's a shame the clientele don't have a wider audience. during the first half of the decade they've released some of the most beautiful, contemplative, emotive and original music i've ever heard. i simply can't get enough of them. as i said, i can't really be totally objective, but this already ranks as one of my top three albums of 2005. buy it. it will rank high on your list, too.

I've been a fan of the Clientele since first hearing their Fading Summer EP in a record store 5 years ago. This new album is excellent. The Clientele have the same foggy coastline sound, but appear to have had a bigger budget for this album. The writing is lovely and the playing is wonderful.

I also recommend "Kaleidoscope World" by the Chills for fans of the Clientele.

From my blog Borrowed Tunes ([...])...

The Clientele have taken a nice leap forward with their second album, with improved production, songs, and overall confidence. They haven't changed; they've just refined and sharpened their sound. Last time around, they had my ear; this time they have my attention.

The band is an exercise in style - hushed, suave 60s folk-pop being the choice - and this move forward doesn't broaden their horizons much beyond their simple tremolo-guitar and swinging drums arrangements. A touch of strings here, an unexpectedly ratty guitar solo there lift the songs out of monotony, which they sometimes skirt dangerously.

In general, though, the Clientele have found a gift for dramatic melody that they only hinted at on The Violet Hour; there's still plenty of style, but a little less art and a little more pop. And with tighter performances, everything hits a touch more directly now. There's also a lyrical thread: a mysterious ex named "K" pops up a few times, and the titular phrase "strange geometry" is used more than once in reference to the disorientation at the end of love.

Looking for a modern touchstone? This band might fill the void left recently by Luna - not that Dean Wareham is gone forever - albeit in a lighter, more mannered way. If you like smart soft pop, the Clientele are for you.

The only reason I don't give this five stars is that the second half of the disc is merely so-so. The first half is exquisite, containing some amazingly beautiful songs. "Since K Got Over Me" is wistful, sad, and gorgeous, with somber, reflective lyrics about how the singer's loss of orientation because his lover was able to survive the loss of his love:

It's just this emptiness
I can't chase it away
And when the evening paints the streets
When the evening paints the streets
It's like walking on a trampoline

"My Own Face Among the Trees" is equally lovely, with delicate bridges provided by organ. "K" is about, well, the mysterious "K" once again. "E.M.P.T.Y" is another jangly but slow pop gem. But after that this album tends to coast a bit. It never gets actually bad, but it does get a bit monotonous, and I usually find myself after "Spirit" or "Impossible" restarting the album. So I find myself an avid fan of about half this album.

The Clientele is a band that has an enormous amount of talent but still hasn't quite consistently recorded music that is on the same level of excellence. This as true of the other two Clientele albums I know--SUBURBAN LIGHT and GOD SAVE THE CLIENTELE--as this one. All three albums contain some amazing moments, songs so good that you begin to suspect that they might be capable of true greatness, but then the brilliant cuts are succeeded by songs that are simply not on the same level of excellence. Nonetheless, I do really recommend both this album and the band to those wanting to explore some new music. They remind me, oddly enough, of Nick Drake crossed with Galaxie 500. Or perhaps a better comparison would be the great eighties pop band Felt. Some might want to call this shoe gazer music, but I find the melodies a little too irresistible for that. Like I say, this is a very good band; if they were a little more consistent they would be a great one.

I feel lucky to have discovered The Clientele, purely by chance, earlier this year. They manage to create the most fantastic, dreamy atmospheres, the lyrics are so hauntingly beautiful..
This album is wonderful, and I've played it on repeat since I bought it.. My favorites are "K" and "Since K got over me".
Looking forward to Sunday, I'm going to see them live!

Three years ago I saw The Clientele play in Boston. There was nothing going on and I was tired of seeing another garage rock band. I was only slightly familiar with them. I was asked to review their first album. I didn't really know if they were from England or Ohio. They seemed like something like The Beatles and The Byrds. The guitarist had a distinct style of playing that was unique. Songs like "My Own Face Inside The Trees" are wonderful. There is a bookish and a sonic ability that is quite charming. I was into Louis Philippe a few years ago too. He arranged some of this album. That guy was really into lush productions of the 1960s. Stuff like Joe Meek and the Mamas and the Papas. Cornelius also explored this music. The Clientele seems to have created another brilliant record, that is its own world, and doesn't really care was is in fashion. They are a cool band.

The Surrealism meets Cubism album art on the latest Clientele release really, for me, defines the feel of the album. The landscapes this British band paint on this record, though they are new territory to me, immediately feel like home. There is an intimacy to the record, a personality that seeps out of every reverb-laden note.

The Clientele have filled a hole in my musical collection I didn't even know existed before my first listen of this record. The reverb-rich, arpeggio guitar riffs invite you in, paving the aural road for an appreciation of the brilliant string work of Louis Philippe (a new addition to the Clientele sound, and one which most assuredly provides added depth.)

Though the album emanates sixties pop (most notably Simon and Garfunkel and The Byrds) with its loopy bass and quick, precise drums, they somehow manage to pave a completely new road. They take the elements that made that music great and twist them into a somber, yet glistening album.

Though most of the songs are slow, there is an energy underneath the album. The sudden guitar break in the catchy "E.M.P.T.Y" and the organ line in "My Own Face Against the Trees" hint of a depth of passion providing the foundation for the creation of muted, dreamy music.

While technically the album is about London, it takes me back to my hometown with every listen. The feeling of every long walk home on a rainy day and aimless car trip to clear my head are written into the sublime landscape of this album. They capture the brief flickers of life that live on the margins of the normal.

The surrealists held on to what they deemed the "ingenuity of childhood" to create fresh, new art free of the confines of traditional artistic constructs. Their works, as a result of this, have an intimate quality found in few other places. Their use of surrealist art on the album is an admission, on the part of the band, of this quality in their own work. This is most glaringly obvious on the penultimate track, "Losing Haringey." Alasdair MacLean tells a story of a lonely walk through London. The band and strings do little more than coddle the story, leaving MacLean's spoken words do the work of holding a "melody." Random harmonies are thrown in throughout the story, providing a vocal link to the music from the story. He eventually finds himself "sitting in a photograph" taken in 1982, while sitting on a bench.

This story finds itself at the center of the message of this album, the strange connection of everything in life back to everything else. On an otherwise uneventful walk, suddenly childhood is rediscovered, and everything makes a little more sense. I have a new album to listen to on foggy days, filled with beautiful, dreamy music that begs to be discovered in its own right. Dali would be proud.

Love this CD, sounds like a sleepy beetles. I didn't know what to expect for sure when I bought it, but am very glad I did. If you like low-key very melodic pop, you'll love this. It will lull you into a state of bliss.