Tuesday 28 October 2014

NEW BUILD - POUR IT ON

New Build's debut album, Yesterday Was Loved And Lost, was a joyous thing filled to the brim with supremely catchy tunes and featuring Do You Not Feel Loved? which remains and will remain one of the finest electronic songs ever recorded. After that release the band returned to their day jobs which, of course, include Felix and Al's in Hot Chip, but happily they've returned with their second release Pour It On, which not only matches their debut's electronic exuberance but sees it, raises it and betters it in quite brilliant style.


One noticeable difference this time round is that Pour It On is far more electronic than Yesterday Was Loved And Lost, and that is no bad thing at all. Opener The Sunlight is typical of the band's approach; it's a fairly lengthy track at just over 6 minutes, that builds up layer upon layer of electronics before settling into a groove that sweeps you away. The final track Pour It On works in a similar way and both bookend the album marvellously. Conversely, track two Look In Vain is an electropop cracker that updates Dare era Human League, mixes it with Vince Clarke esque synths and wraps it all in melodies that are impossible to forget. Throughout the album you can pick out influences such as those two, New Order and so on as well as the likes of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, neither of which are of course particularly surprising given the band's members.

Joy and Al in the studio

The album is full of delights from the songs I've mentioned above to the arpeggiated joy of Different Kind to to the slower, more melodic Witness and beyond. It's a great album from start to finish and is highly recommended to anyone with any interest in electronic pop music. You really should check it out.


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