Cate Le Bon | CYRK
Written by Mrs. Tansy Maude Peregrine // January 19, 2012 // On the Record // No comments
Welsh chanteuse releases her fine second album.
Most likely to: make twentysomethings realize they need to start acting their age.
CYRK, the sophomore release by Cate Le Bon, brims with this chanteuse’s Nico-esque vocals. The album follows Le Bon’s 2010 debut Me Oh My, which was also released by The Control Group, and is imminently listenable, yet never sounds predictable or milquetoast.
Standout track “Puts Me to Work” intrigues without asking too much of the listener. This song sets CYRK’s tone, and acts like a welcome mat for the record. The lilting title track prefaces “Julia” and “Greta,” two darker songs with deceptively feminine titles. Though the rhythm on “Julia” marches along at barely 72 bpm for most of the song, eventually the organ line gives way to a cacophonic coda. The drama of “Greta” comes directly from Le Bon’s vocals, which haunt the backdrop of atonal horns. And “Fold the Cloth” blends Stereolab’s expansive jams with a folk-tinged melody that fills every sonic crevice with grooving synths and Le Bon’s otherworldly descant.
Le Bon’s Welsh heritage surfaces on “Ploughing Out Part 1” and “Ploughing Out Part 2,” the two dirges that close out CYRK. A plaintive acoustic guitar melody weaves like the warp to Le Bon’s vocal weft throughout “Part 1” then takes a gentle neo-psychedelic turn as “Part 2” commences.
Like Regina Spector or St. Vincent (with whom she has recently toured), Le Bon writes artsy songs that never become so self-involved that they lose their melody or rhythm. Le Bon’s approach will doubtless endear her to a wide range of listeners, and CYRK can act as a sort of soundtrack for the post-grad, pre-parenting years. Le Bon seems poised, in particular, to grace the mp3 collections of hipsters transitioning to more adult stages of life.
Watch the video for CYRK track “Fold the Cloth” below:
