eMusic Review
Get past this London four-piece's overt Englishness, and you're left with shadows, echoes, inferences. Like many indie bands, the Clientele has always held in high regard nostalgia for things only experienced through the dusty prism of faded films, moldy books and scratched LPs. At first, its fourth proper album seems as though it might not be all that different from its predecessors: Misleadingly perky opening track "I Wonder Where We Are" opens with a guitar riff that paraphrases a dozen Smiths singles, followed by some Love-ly Spanish trumpets that reappear throughout, playing jaunty counterpoint to the downbeat moods that dominate.
But with the subsequent title track and many that follow, a sense of identity sets in that's greater than the sum of the Clientele's influences. Shorn of the Louis Philippe string arrangements of the last two discs and most additional players, Bonfires is a considerably leaner disc in which having less means more. Keyboardist/violinist Mel Draisey comes into her own here: the melodies she plays are among the record's most memorable, and the shared intimacy between the players is palpable: The studio detailing is still there, but more importantly a sense of four people simultaneously interacting defines the music's sensual flow.… read more »
