The Leisure Society - Into The Murky Water

Joyously kaleidoscopic 2^nd album from the UK's top indie-folk collective.

The Leisure Society return with their follow up to 2009's The Sleeper. It sees them build on the sound of the first album, and the demos and B-sides collection A Product Of The Ego Drain.

The album opens with the title track “Into The Murky Water”. A few bars of portentous drum fills and marimba riffs give way to a sound which can only be described as Vaughan Williams challenging Jethro Tull to a musical version of the game Twister. Like many of the nine songs that follow it contains a chorus that will get under your skin like a tattoo. If we still had milkmen in this country no doubt they'd be whistling it.

It's a very English sounding record, with plenty of strings and folksy arrangements but there's also an American West Coast thing going on with some of the backing, most similar to Arthur Lee's Love. (Love's track “Alone Again Or” actually gets a mention at one point.) And “You Could Keep Me Talking” sounds like Jethro Tull's “Living In The Past” (them again!) covered by the Beach Boys.

Click over the jump for more on Into The Murky Water.

This is not the darker album that core members Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy alluded to in recent interviews, it's anything but murky in sound, indeed it positively sparkles. Although lyrically they deal with the eternal mysteries and murkiness of the human condition.

This is a folk record but one seen twisted through a prism of late 60's/early 70's futurism, which in itself is retro. Confused? That may be the idea, but it's certainly a hell of a lot of fun! And we could all do with a little bit more fun in our lives during these troubled times.

The current single “This Phantom Life” features comic actor Mark Heap (currently seen in Friday Night Dinner) in the video, playing the part of a corrupt leader of a spiritual cult. He's not their only celebrity fan either; none other than Brian Eno has also expressed his liking for the band.

The Leisure Society undertake a UK and European tour throughout May and June, with festival dates following later in the year. Go see them live if you get the chance, they might just make your summer.

Click here for The Leisure Society's website.

Into The Murky Water is released on Full Time Hobby Records.