2019 is proving a great year for Metronomy fans. Last month they released ‘Lately’, their first track in three years. Arriving with an accompanying video directed by singer Joe Mount, the kaleidoscopic analog synth patterns weave with their rock and roll instruments, which are played with a lot of restraint. Mount’s bittersweet vocal sticks in your head and the track teases a build but doesn’t quite.
The follow up ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’, is a much more kitsch affair. It too comes with a Joe Mount directed video, and he switches from the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids style video to write a Rammstein inspired story about ice cream parlours.
Sounds like he's having some fun being a video director and has a brilliant imagination to boot. Mount explains his idea in a press release: “Years ago a friend of mine gave me a VHS tape of the MTV show ‘120 Minutes’. It’s something I’d get him to do every so often as I was a bit obsessed with music TV at the time. On one particular tape was the video for ‘Sonne’ by Rammstein, I’d never seen them before and it blew my mind. This video is a sort of homage to that, but with an added story about the gentrification of ice cream parlours.”
The album the track is taken from is a 17-track beast called Metronomy Forever. It's being released 13 September.
Being asked to explain its title by the label saw Mount confront his mortality and remind us of the limited money an album makes for an artist these days.
“What happens is when you’re making music and you enter a world where you have achieved some sort of celebrity no matter how large or small you start to think about yourself in terms of legacy and what you’re going to leave behind,” says Mount.
“And then you realise that’s limited to the interest people have in you. In the end I feel completely comfortable with it. The less importance you place in any art the more interesting it can become in a way… I’m making music, I’m going to do some concerts, I need to feed my children”.
Indeed, Metrnomy are hitting the road for a European tour and will arrive in the UK in November. Tickets for those dates go on general sale at 9am 28 June.
NOVEMBER
06 - Southampton, Guildhall
08 - London, The Roundhouse
09 - Manchester, Academy
11 - Leeds, 02 Academy
13 - Glasgow, SWG3
14 - Bristol, O2 Academy
15 - Nottingham, Rock City
16 - Birmingham, The O2 Institute
‘Metronomy Forever’ album tracklisting:
1. ‘Wedding’
2. ‘Whitsand Bay’
3. ‘Insecurity’
4. ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’
5. ‘Driving’
6. ‘Lately (Going Spare)’
7. ‘Lying Low’
8. ‘Forever Is A Long Time’
9. ‘The Light’
10. ‘Sex Emoji’
11. ‘Walking In The Dark’
12. ‘Insecure’
13. ‘Miracle Rooftop’
14. ‘Upset My Girlfriend’
15. ‘Wedding Bells’
16. ‘Lately Going Spare’
17. ‘Ur Mixtape’
