The Clientele "Strange Geometry" and summer 2005 tour

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Tim - oh! Ha! Seeing as there were only about 8 people who seemed to be paying attention, I offer you a belated 'hello!'.

I am being unfair to the gig... I reviewed it for the upcoming issue of The Skinny and gave it 4 stars. uh, let's see...

On their recordings, The Clientele are a band of ache and haze, a shoegazer’s shy dream of rainy London. Imagine my surprise, then, when these songs glittered to life on Friday, shining with an unveiled fervour. While in places things were still gauzey, Alasdair MacLean might suddenly swipe at his electric guitar, the shimmer turning to noise, and his gentle songs would be shot through with flame. On the stand-out single “Since K Got Over Me”, the band sounded almost jaunty – a man that stamps into puddles, kicking up sparkles, instead of just trudging through them. It’s a pity that much of the later gig got lost in the venue, the songs becoming harder and harder to hold on to: the openers chatted away with their friends and The Clientele’s murmurs vanished in the fray.

Heh. I guess my memory of it faded a little too.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Monday, 19 September 2005 14:06 (eighteen years ago) link

a lot of people on the Clientele mailing list are hailing it as their best ever, but I disagree. The tunes are alright, but none of them are stellar. I cant quite put my finger on it, but it's something to do with the sort of melodies on this new one. They seem less adventurous than before - and maybe that's because this one is supposed to be light and more poppy. But Suburban Light was poppy, and I had to Say this has a gorgeous melody.

Also, the lyrics arent up to par.

I guess i just tend to like them when they're a little more abstract, like on Ariadne, and songs like House on Fire (all of The Violet Hour really).

That said, E.M.P.T.Y. is really great. I love those first few opening seconds. And, Impossible is good. Im not sure whether I like the Ariadne version more or less, but I do like the clarity of this one a lot. It made me appreciate the song more.

Can't wait to see em in november :)

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 19 September 2005 14:09 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm still waiting for pointy to ship me the album! come on, guys... it's been two weeks already!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Tim H., will you be visiting America soon? Arlington in October?

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Mary I'd love to but I don't think I'll be able to afford it, sadly. Amsterdam and Lille in a couple of weeks, though!

As for America: maybe in the spring?

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Aww, I will attend in your stead. Looking forward to spring, then.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:01 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm pleased they'll be headlining on the upcoming US tour... this time if work won't give me those days off, i'm going to quit.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Is this record not out in America yet? Didn't see it on iTunes.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

merge isn't releasing it in the US until october 11th.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

come to texas, tim!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

COME BACK TO BOSTON, DUDER

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link

i love the new album and don't really give a shit if it isn't some sort of "Kid A" type of departure. The production is excellent.

― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 19 September 2005 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link

so can anybody hook me up with the new album? i emailed pointy records and they haven't even sent my copy out yet!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Sunday, 25 September 2005 22:45 (eighteen years ago) link

A YSI would be greatly appreciated!

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Sunday, 25 September 2005 22:54 (eighteen years ago) link

kid a departure? i thought they just added strings?
a new beaumont record next week too, lots of goodies at the end of the year, a scarlet's well cd in december maybe.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 26 September 2005 01:50 (eighteen years ago) link

i need to be able to listen this album when the first cold front of the season comes through! it was 108 today for god's sake!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 26 September 2005 04:39 (eighteen years ago) link

x post

i think he was just responding to my general sort of claim that I like the previous work more and that they're better when a little more abstract. although i wouldnt classify anything of theirs as being at all like kid A or its departure.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 26 September 2005 12:25 (eighteen years ago) link

They have a song about Jerry?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 26 September 2005 12:39 (eighteen years ago) link

http://tbs.com/TBS/Images/Dynamic/i10/seinfeld_jerry_240x260_052820041524.jpg

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 26 September 2005 12:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Strange Geometry is not bad at first listen. Maybe it will sneak into my end of the year top 20...

― zeus (zeus), Monday, 26 September 2005 12:57 (eighteen years ago) link

PJM, they do. And it rocks!

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 26 September 2005 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Jerry Mouse??

― the bellefox, Monday, 26 September 2005 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Jerry Nipper, I mean.

I have received a CD of The Braodcast, an album which includes the song called Papercuts. The circle of life is complete.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 26 September 2005 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link

I bought the most recent LP by the band The Broadcasts, it's called "Tender Buttons", off Amazon. I wanted to familiarise myself with it before I see The Broadcasts play with the band The Clientele next week, abroad. It's very good, really it is. Now Amazon keeps recommending that I buy "Strange Geometry".

The circle of life is complete, again.

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 26 September 2005 14:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I've now convinced myself that #9 dream goes:

Ah! böwakawa troussé, troussé

In order to fully complete that circle of life by Elton John.

― KeefW (kmw), Monday, 26 September 2005 17:25 (eighteen years ago) link

A truly beautiful album, especially the tracks E.M.P.T.Y. and My Own Face Inside The Trees... Love it.

― zeus (zeus), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 09:45 (eighteen years ago) link

yes, my own face inside the trees is stunning.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link

I think Tim H should be invited onstage to read the little story.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 07:31 (eighteen years ago) link

it was 87 here today but it's meant to be snowing by wednesday, will the record be out by then? ah, doesn't look likely. the new beaumont record is a country record. it is very pretty.

― keyth (keyth), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 02:32 (eighteen years ago) link

i still haven't received my clientele cd from pointy records. cold front arrives thursday night.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 05:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Amsterdam and Lille! I think this is now, this week.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 10:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Clientele play California in about a month - I have 3 chances to see 'em, but...where? SF is preferable, I live in LA...but San Diego seems easiest. What to do? (I know, I know...Amsterdam or Lille)

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 13:02 (eighteen years ago) link

In what way do they mention Jerry the Nipper, Miller?

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link

And one day they'll release "Jerry".

-- Tim (hopkinsti...) (webmail), September 19th, 2005 3:34 PM. (Tim)

I pretended it was Jerry the Nipper, for a laugh. It's probably about the trials of some tormented aesthete though.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

It's probably about the trials of some tormented aesthete though.

Yes, we're still talking about Jerry the Nipper here. ;)

― marianna (mariannapm), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link

saw them last night in amsterdam. they were pretty good. lots of reverb. they opened with a version of pictures of dorian gray. one of my friends *almost* ruined it by saying they sounded like the dire straits. i bought the album. the end.

― (jg) ((jg)), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 12:17 (eighteen years ago) link

how long was the set? how was the mix of new vs old songs?

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 12:45 (eighteen years ago) link

they played for about 30 minutes. but it was on a night with a handful of other bands (broadcast played earlier on, for instance). haven't heard the new album yet, apart from the single, and i recognized a handful of old tunes. was pleasently surprised that they played that track that was on one of those fierce panda single-compilations years ago; the one that ends with the james bond-riff (sorry, i am really crap at remembering titles).

― (jg) ((jg)), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

hah cool :)

we could walk together

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 12:58 (eighteen years ago) link

that's the fella. probably my favourite clientele-song.

― (jg) ((jg)), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 13:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i think the new one is much better than the first album. felt like with the first album that when you listened someone was pushing you from behind and it felt like it whizzed by and didn't make much of an impression. this one has songs that are separate from the whole, not quite languourous, and oh yeah all of them are great. it doesn't sound much like cardinal although it has that same autumnal feel but then the clientele always sound like that and the louis phillipe string arrangements seem custom tailored here bearing little resemblance to his own records. the new version of the old song is very pretty and the change large enough to jusitfy it's inclusion. they look properly serious in the picture.

― keyth (keyth), Saturday, 8 October 2005 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

adore this album, probably their strongest collection of songs. the monologue piece works a lot better than i would have expected it to

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Monday, 7 November 2005 01:05 (eighteen years ago) link

my bandmate says it sounds "like the byrds"

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Monday, 7 November 2005 01:06 (eighteen years ago) link

it sounds like they weren't just trying to create some ghostly atmosphere this time around. the songs are so rich and filled out now. it's fantastic.

― keyth (keyth), Monday, 7 November 2005 01:10 (eighteen years ago) link

i prefer the violet hour, probably less because of any musical quality than its uncanny hitting of so many personal touchstones, but strange geometry is all kinds of gorgeous. saw them live friday night as well, sounded really good. probably half the set was stuff from suburban light, and "impossible" was just breathtaking live, very different in feel to the recorded versions. and one called "please kill me" that's great, not sure if it's a cover... sounds like a clientele song.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 7 November 2005 01:34 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...

A few months on and I still listen to this a lot, not even close to tiring of it. I love the recurring themes in the lyrics and the music, the random (sometimes out of tune) guitar notes meandering all over the place. I had not listened to their earlier stuff, but I dig the voice too - reminds me of George Harrison.

That said, I bought Suburban Light and it does not resonate nearly as much - should I get The Violet Hour?

― erv (Abe Froman), Thursday, 13 April 2006 17:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I like The Violet Hour better than Strange Geometry...it's more haunting/spectral/shimmery...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 13 April 2006 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link

hank otm.

SG is just a bit too in your face for the band.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 13 April 2006 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't think a more perfect album than The Violet Hour has ever been recorded by anyone.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 13 April 2006 19:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I just downloaded from iTunes - thanks for the rec!

― erv (Abe Froman), Thursday, 13 April 2006 19:39 (eighteen years ago) link

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