Only You Left

About

Since their 2018 debut, this Manchester, UK, outfit has been on an ongoing mission to deconstruct traditional guitar-driven indie-rock into something more unpredictably enigmatic, and with 2022’s <i>Tableau</i>, they made their boldest leap into the realm of extended, improvised post-rock-inspired soundscapes. So the corrosive motorik surge that introduces <i>Only You Left</i>’s opening track “Three Halves” feels a bit like a reset, with bassist/vocalist Esmé Dee Hand-Halford, drummer Sidonie Dee Hand-Halford, and guitarist Henry Carlyle Wade reverting to power-trio mode. But as the album plays out, it becomes clear that The Orielles aren’t merely staging a return to rock, but rethinking their approach to songcraft using the oblique dream-logic strategies they’ve learned along the way. They construct their tracks like funhouses tricked out with secret passageways: The post-punky propulsion and spiky guitar lines of “Shadow of You Appears” gradually give way to a flurry of needling horror-movie strings, while the galloping momentum and fuzz-coated melodies of “Tears Are” suddenly drop out to reveal an eerily whispered acoustic dream-pop reverie lurking underneath. And with the space-jazz drift and stuttering, hand-clapped funk of “Wasp,” The Orielles strike the balance of art-rock precision and rhythmic experimentation that Radiohead mastered circa <i>In Rainbows</i>.

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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