'It totally polarises people. People either really like it or can’t fucking stand it. To a scary degree, sometimes. Which is good. I was talking to the guy who did sound for us on this tour, and he was telling me about a seminal Can gig. They got huge amounts of boos, and Holger Czukay was really happy afterwards. "Why?', he was asked. "Because we caused a reaction. And that’s better than indifference."
Joseph Mount is talking about the effect that the Metronomy live show has on the unprepared gig-goer, with its pound shop light show, synchronised dance routines, and wanton eclecticism. But the point applies perfectly to Metronomy on record, too. Listen to the new, second Metronomy album 'Nights Out' and the one thing you won’t be is indifferent. Although Mount's elliptical, insidious, multi-coloured and richly textured art-pop sounds nothing like Cologne's legendary purveyors of prog-disco, Can do offer clues to the lineage Mount belongs too. Add early Brian Eno, Sparks, Devo, Talking Heads, Soft Cell, and then scratch your head for more recent examples of abstract music, full of experiment, risk, and individuality…that somehow resolves itself into pop…that makes you sing and dance and feel like a big kid…and then you realise that you can't think of any because Metronomy are, in the current pop milieu, an utterly unique proposition.
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