The Young Knives - Ornaments From The Silver Arcade (CD, Vinyl LP)

I've never heard a Young Knives record before but I feel more very familiar with the band thanks to the exposure and high praise they've garnered over the years. 'Ornaments From The Silver Arcade' is their third outing to date and it's chock full of proper pop music like what they used to make in the mid 80's. They remind me of PiL, XTC and Gang Of Four when they abandoned Punk Rock in favour of potential chart success and it's suits the group down to the ground. I can hear elements of The Style Council, Talking Heads and even Haircut 100 in here as well as all the post punk stuff that has helped solidify their reputation up to this point. Also worth noting that 'Ormnaments...' was recorded by super-producer and genuine good guy Nick Launay. He's been having a good run of it recently producing albums from The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's, Grinderman, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Maximo Park among others but in his heyday he was lucky enough to produce records for Talking Heads, The Birthday Party, INXS, The Slits and Killing Joke as well as PiL and Gang Of Four! What a dude! The combo of an ambitious indie band and an analogue-obsessed top producer makes for a decent pop record in this case.