MUSIC | METRONOMY
NOW AND FOREVER Henry Northmore chats to Metronomy mainman Joseph Mount about the band’s sixth album and his musical evolution as an artist
104 THE LIST 1 Nov 2019–31 Jan 2020
‘I like to describe my stuff as “electro pop” and I quite like how lame it sounds,’ laughs Joseph Mount, the mastermind behind Metronomy. It’s hard to argue with his description, with Metronomy having
evolved from a bedroom project into a gorgeous, swooning pop group.
After releasing a handful of, essentially solo, electronic albums, the turning point was 2011’s English Riviera, a lush exercise in amalgamating house, 70s rock, funk, soul and lounge music. It marked a new chapter in Metronomy’s evolution. Despite his skills as a multi-instrumentalist and producer, Mount found he needed a full band to bring his ambitions to life, adding regular musicians Oscar Cash (saxophone, guitars, keyboards), Anna Prior (drums, vocals), Olugbenga Adelekan (bass) and Michael Lovett (keyboards, guitars) to the ranks. It’s a swelteringly hot day in August when we speak, Metronomy’s sixth album, Metronomy Forever, hasn’t hit the shops yet and Mount is savouring the time between completion and release: ‘The more you release music, the more you mature in terms of your relationship between yourself and each record. Releasing the record is when it starts to be judged, whether critics like it or it does well commercially – it’s a very different thing, it becomes a product. So your relationship [with the record] does change. Now it feels like mine, because no one has heard it or had a chance to misunderstand it, once it’s released it belongs to the world . . . if they want it.’
Metronomy Forever follows a similar pattern set out on previous albums, drawing on retro influences yet sounding deliciously fresh. At 17 tracks, it represents Metronomy’s longest album to date, flitting between blatant pop songs like ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’, alongside instrumental digressions, the thrumming guitars of ‘Lately’ and playful electronica such as ‘Lying Low’.