Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brian on Thu 17 Apr, 2008.

Couldn't get out of bed this morning. But the minute I did, the sun came out. Which places my mind in positive territory just in time for the debut Last Shadow Puppets album. 'The Age of the Understatement' contains a nicely rounded 12 tunes of smooth, cinematic 60's inflected pop that often continues the spaghetti Western feel of last weeks chart baiting taster. It's all executed with panache & humor, a real whirlwind of echo laden pop genius to appeal to all ages. Yes the kids will dig this but so will their parents & possibly grandparents too. Alex Turner & his Scouse compadre have produced an album that in one fell swoop encapsulates all that is exciting about pop music. It's shamelessly retro but alarmingly fresh. I feel like i'm being hurled through the musical cosmos inside a big space hopper here. The most obvious reference points are The Coral, Phil Spector, Scott Walker & Sergio Leone but this is distinctly the work of the young Arctic Monkey, his spiky, effortless prose punctuating these bulbous tunes with carefree abandon. Shout out to the young Rascal too, for the magic Liverpudlian touch is all over this dreamy blast from the past. I think old mentor Richard Hawley is possibly partly to blame for this nostalgia fest but these bands have to offer a nod & a wink to the past to confirm future glories I suspect. So I was a little cynical about the single but the album as a whole is a welcome diversion, a nice slice of kitch indulgence from two very talented young men with a penchant for soaring orchestral pop & the odd bit of Northern balladeering. (Is this the new McAltmont & Butler then???) LP/CD on Domino.

RUG288CD

The Age Of The Understatement
Two Hearts In Two Weeks
Wondrous Place


7” - RUG288

The Age Of The Understatement
Two Hearts In Two Weeks



7” - RUG288X

The Age Of The Understatement
In The Heat Of The Morning

The Arctic Monkeys and The Rascals frontmen team up to create a superb oeuvre of faded beauty and songwriting craftsmanship. This is as good as it gets this year.

The Last Shadow Puppets are Alex Turner (from Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (from The Rascals). Firm friends ever since Arctic Monkeys toured with Kane’s previous group The Little Flames, the pair were so inspired by listening to the likes of Scott Walker, early David Bowie and David Axelrod that they hatched a plan.

The Last Shadow Puppets recorded at Black Box studios near Nantes, France in two weeks during the summer of 2007, with producer and drummer James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco). The band then approached Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) to arrange and conduct the orchestration of the tracks, which were recorded by the 22 piece London Metropolitan Orchestra at British Grove studios in London over Christmas.    The track is a majestic masterpiece where the two voices, intertwined in harmony, form the canvas for a story centred around this one heartbreaker of a girl. The sweeping strings underscore the song and build up a very scenic and dramatic background to the Ennio Morricone styled guitars. It’s an uncontrollable race, an emotional whirlwind, a poignant rush to the head.

The B-sides gather songs with a wide range of influences dating mainly from the 1960’s. Here, the band cover ‘A Wondrous Place’, a song originally Billy Fury, who went to Number 28 in the charts with it in September 1960.   The second 7” features an early Bowie cover ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’ which is completely exclusive.