“Bookshop Casanova”
from the album God Save the Clientele
2007
iTunes
MP3 – “Bookshop Casanova” [right-click/save-as]
Here on a song from the forthcoming album God Save the Clientele, we have a Clientele more forward in every conceivable way: “You got my name/ Pick up my number/ Come on darling/ Let’s be lovers.” Maybe he’s in character, but lead singer and songwriter Alasdair Maclean almost sounds like a cad. Meanwhile, the chords are hitting on the 1 and 3 over the brisk beat and strings that sound like they might have drifted over from Philadelphia are swirling all over the place. And then Maclean throws in a fuzztone guitar solo on the break and doubles his own voice like John and Paul during a closing refrain of “Good Night.”
Turns out the Clientele are pretty good at peppy, upbeat guitar pop with orchestral flourishes. They’ve so far been one of those bands less interested in “branching out” than perfecting a unified aesthetic, but here they sound different, energized, more expansive, and less hermetic, and the change is welcome.