Cate Le Bon - classic or dud

This is dripping in atmosphere. I love it.

Like her last album, this isn’t bad but I miss the more jagged guitars of her first few albums. I’m not as keen on the synths/sax combo. Just my personal taste but I rarely go for songs with saxophone

Polar opposite for me. This is the first time I'm buying what she's selling for more than a minute or two.

masterpiece imo

the new bryan ferry

And that's a fine place to aim for!

I keep hearing 10,000 Maniacs' "Like the Weather" somewhere in "Moderation"

10,000 Maniacs have a much better drummer

oh man, not comparing the drummers directly (i don't know 10K maniacs very well at all), but i love the drummer. i read somewhere about their drumming being driven by carefully placed bass drum kicks, recently, and that's what I focus on

i'm still digesting the album. i got so, so used to Moderation leading directly into Running Away - just a casualty of the several months of 1-3 songs approach to PR, but those two became intertwined, for me.

Yeah maybe not a fair comparison. That sort of late 80s light snappy rolling feel leads in the direction of Rusted Root

It feels to me like Pompeii's drums are dragging at the tempo, as if they're intentionally slowing everything down, a sluggish almost DJ Screw effect

the song "Pompeii" is hitting me, now, on the 3rd time through. now every corner of it feels so right, where it drifted right on past the first couple times. i do love the sound of her current line-up/instrumentation, so much.

The album is growing on me. I think I do like it more than the last album.

speaking of amazing guitar parts, both subtle and riffage, they're both in "Remembering Me"

the subtle can be heard during the chorus, the the thin wobbling snake between some of the lines and during some of the others:

Upset, and out of touch
Good grief, you miss so much
Oh, oh, remember me
Louder than empty rooms
Face down in heirlooms
Oh, oh, remembering me

that is positively slinking

later on, the riffage is later, at 3:00, the solo. it's like alt arena rock busts in all of a sudden but it's perfect

the thin wobbling snake

i want to go ahead and express my regret for this description of the guitar line, lol

the positively slinking thin wobbling snake

:-|

terrific bass on this record, reminds me of john giblin's playing on john martyn's grace & danger but less cagey.

Press material says she mostly composed it on bass

i JUST noticed the big obvious thing about the beginning of the title track "Pompeii", which is that it follows the exactly melodic scheme of the ending of the previous song, "French Boys"

also, i LOVE the chorus of "Pompeii", particularly the background vocal counterpart, the wordless "ooom-PAAAH!", and how it reinforces a kind of half-time feel

All my life in sentiment
All my language is vulgar and true
I've pushed love through the hourglass
Did you see me putting pain in a stone?

really really liking this album, possibly even more than the last ones. her herky-jerk rhythms are so mesmerizing and it seems like she's leveled up the arrangements. some great guitar tones on here too.

still looking for an earworm like "home to you," but maybe one will reveal itself in time.

the new molly nilsson album also has a song called "pompeii"

This record is wonderful. The bass, the arrangements, the rhythms - so much pleasure for the ears. I missed her in Glasgow last week because I got Covid, which is a shame because seeing her play the previous record live really opened it up to me. And I would have loved to see the parts of Pompeii come together before my eyes.

yeah it's so good. maybe my favorite of hers.

ditto

me too i think, that or cyrk anyway, and i think this one has the stronger songs.

Was playing it yesterday on a trip back from my folks and my sis, who is a fan to start with, was very taken by how much the guitars reminded her of Ween (who she is also a stone cold fan of).

We saw her tonight in Lille (I missed the London show for reasons of family illness) and she was fantastic.

le bon alert - she is on the new kurt vile album track "Jesus on a Wire"

it's a snoozer. she just does some backup vox. not sure i would know it was her if i didn't know

saw her last night - my third time, better than the reward tour IMO (although that was great) - new songs sound fantastic live and the reward songs sounded like utter classics given a light pompeii makeover - not that familiar with the new LP but whoever mentioned Avalon vibes upthread was otm

not to hijack the revive, but i regret not buying one of her mugs from her in the Mug Museum days.

New single "Typical Love" out today. Dunno if this is a teaser for a physical release or will just a digital thing, but did not expect anything else this year. Already on Spotify, and video debuts at 10am ET:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOJ4NVu_4GM

she produced this it's rly good, and i'm seeing him next week: https://hhawkline.bandcamp.com/album/milk-for-flowers

here's an article to give a flavour: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/h-hawkline-tells-us-about-the-influences-behind-new-album-milk-for-flowers

oh i didn't know there was a new h. hawkline album. i believe he was previously in a relationship with le bon and was later in a relationship with aldous harding, though he must be on good terms with both since le bon produced this and he played bass for harding and opened for her last year on her tour

must be one charming scamp

https://hhawkline.bandcamp.com/track/last-thing-on-your-mind

this song from his last album was a real showstopper when i saw him

ty, shall have a listen!

i got the tickets cos of the support act (alice low, documented here) but he's proving an excellent discovery in his own right

this song you posted is lovely yeah

thanks for sharing imago, have always loved his song "engineers"

will check out

neat!

i ended up liking the CLB song that placed in the ILX poll more than I thought I would, so her recent album will be given a full going-over too

wait, by 'song that placed' i mean 'someone's indicated track from the album that placed'

it’s a damn great album.

(pompeii

oh i didn't know there was a new h. hawkline album. i believe he was previously in a relationship with le bon and was later in a relationship with aldous harding,

This is interesting to me because I often mix up cate le bon and aldous harding. Hope h hawkline doesn’t have the same issue.

the atonal audio smudging in the pompeii title track is very pleasing

wait, by 'song that placed' i mean 'someone's indicated track from the album that placed'

Ha, I got excited about that version of history for a few milliseconds. (I have a feeling I was her sole voter tracks-wise.)

Hawkline's arrangements *are* palpably Lebonian innit. Nice.

Their earlier stuff was sometimes almost indistinguishable, this one would have been quite at home on Me Oh My: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrUmLrBqfh8

Absolutely. I saw Cate on the Mug Museum tour and he opened for her and their bands were the same, with the exception of the front person. Both great. He's released lots of good stuff.

finally a new record coming!: https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/llais/2024/cate-le-bon

Both the shows scheduled for later this year have been cancelled - any clues why?