Fear Fear

Working Mens Clubs sophomore album, 2022s Fear Fear, plays like a lost 1980s goth dance album. Its an evocative vibe the Yorkshire band first debuted on their eponymous 2020 full-length and which they further expanded on their companion 2021 singles "X" and "Y." Those latter two tracks found the group continuing to push their sound, exploring their more rock-leaning influences on "X," while "Y" showcased their love of hyper electronic dance grooves -- a balance they continue to strike here. Once again working with producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, MIA, Tricky), Working Mens Club dig even deeper into their black disco ball aesthetic, crafting an album full of acidic electronica that straddles the line between atonally robotic industrial music and dancefloor-friendly post-punk. While theres certainly a studied, retro air to much of the album, its slyly leavened by singer Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, whose wickedly wry and deadpan delivery evokes the new wave irony of artists like Thomas Dolby and New Orders Bernard Sumner. Cuts like "Circumference" and "Rapture" are deftly hooky, combining glistening waves of synths and whip-cracking beats much in the same way Depeche Mode did in their early work. Others, like "Heart Attack" and "Money Is Mine" are more kinetic, full of laser-tone keyboards and spring-coiled guitar riffs that Minsky-Sargeant half-raps over. Even more cinematically compelling is "Widow," a pearlescent anthem built around an infectious keyboard line that immediately burrows its way into your skin. That the song, as with much of Fear Fear, also sounds like it should be used on a soundtrack to a film about vampires running a Europop dance club feels just about right. ~ Matt Collar

英ウェストヨークシャー出身の若きポスト・パンク・バンドによる2作目は、前作に続いてアークティック・モンキーズらを手掛けたロス・オートンがプロデュースを担当。ダークかつエネルギッシュなサウンドはそのままに、今作は全体的にテンポを上げ、シンセで効果的な音を加えることにより、アルバムにスペイシーな昂揚感を加えている。陰と陽の狭間を行く〈少し大人になった〉ダンス・アルバムと言っていい。
bounce (C)赤瀧洋二