WEEKEND VIDEO
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Metronomy
“A Thing for Me”
Nights Out
2008
iTunes
Originally creating Metronomy as an electronic side project while drumming for rock bands, Joseph Mount’s moniker quickly gained notoriety due to his remixing skills. Turbo-charging tunes from acts like Goldfrapp, Lykke Li, and Sebastian Tellier, Mount became a big hit in the blogosphere with listeners clamoring for more of his intentionally weird approach to making people dance.
Metronomy’s high-strung synth workouts play like early Depeche Mode albums pitched up to the point of snapping. Juxtaposing dance-floor acumen with squiggly keyboard melodies and a serious case of ADD, the band’s new album Nights Out veers from melancholy Ibiza beach pop (“Heartbreaker”) to Devo-like pogo machinations (“On the Motorway”). Nights Out is something of a concept album about the perils of life after dark (“It’s a soundtrack to a bad weekend,” Mount has said), the chirpy tunes belying an undercurrent of morning-after melancholy.
With the rapturous reception to Nights Out, requests for Mount’s services have shot through the roof, with artists both burgeoning (Little Boots) and established (Sophie Ellis Bextor) hitting him up for production work. Live, Mount is joined by Oscar Cash and Gabriel Stebbing, who augment their stage show with lo-fi theatrics and goofy dance routines.
The cover art for Nights Out was made by famed airbrush artist Phillip Castle, best known for creating the original movie poster for A Clockwork Orange. He also painted the cover of Pulp’s His ‘n’ Hers album in 1994.