Joyously
kaleidoscopic 2nd 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.