CD Choice: THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
The Age of the Understatement
Domino
****
There are few things more annoying about the successful and rich rock star than a side project. Comprising songs thought of as being "not quite right" for the full- time job, the side project (usually a solo album) is regularly the province of a band singer (almost always male) with too much time on his hands, too much money in the bank to worry about recording costs, and too much ego basking in the sunshine of his mind. That such itches have to be scratched is natural; that the results of such itches have to released into the public domain isn't.
Alex Turner, the Arctic Monkeys frontman, singer and main songwriter, is, at a youthful 22, not the most obvious figure in right- here, right-now music terms to take a solo run. Yet here he is, admittedly in the company of friend Miles Kane, of Wirral group The Rascals, with a record that, while not sounding three million miles away from his successful band, is so different from the norm that it could be as influential to current acts as its primary influence (Scott Walker) was to bands in the late 1970s.
The sound is more genuine homage than cute pastiche; unlike Duffy (who is ostensibly the yang to Turner's yin, if you get my drift) Turner and Kane's approach seems far more natural and homespun, with ne'er an eye on the charts. Songs such as Standing Next to Me, In My Room, Only the Truth and the title track don't just evoke the musky, moist music emanating from Walker's 1960s solo records, they enhance the experience through use of provocative string arrangements (by Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett) and some of Turner's best lyrics.
Not an ego-driven aberration, then; neither is The Age of the Understatement a misjudged stab at dressing up Carnaby Street habitues in Topshop tat. Instead, Turner and Kane take a swift journey to the centre of pop music via a grimy time tunnel. That they come out the other side smelling of roses instead of manure is a darned good achievement.
Download tracks: Standing Next to Me, In My Room, The Age of the Understatement
