Whatabout Canada?

Hmm, I'm not so sure about one of my favourite bands anymore. Now, as someone who is very slowly becoming a lyrics man - yeah i'm still a bit C3PO when it comes to decoding love songs - I must admit that the Clientele always struck a chord with me because of their expressionistic, and seasonal lyrical themes.

As far as my lyrical appreciation extends right now, romantic reflections on nature are still usually about as sophisticated as my taste gets. Apart from that, I guess, in tired and emotional states I have leaked the odd unexpected tear at a heartfelt platitude during a mid-tempo Sugababes hit.

Back to my theme, the season which the Clientele characteristically refer to during many of their songs is Autumn. This is something I tended to love about them too, being someone whose senses are attuned to any sort of Autumnal mulch: from plump fungus breaking underfoot, to crisp morning moons, or indeed, to Samhain itself, fingering it's way into Kells's life as it does, thanks to all our local pagans. Other vaguely creepy yet delicious gut pangs are brought back by the similar sights and smells each Hallowe'en too: the one poor child in a crappy mask and a binbag, a banger popping in football pitch gloom, or the dull embers of a bonfire in the corner field of a housing estate at dawn - poked and nurtured by the two remaining teens too high to go home; but also too fond of physically abusing cats with bangers to win your sympathy, dear readers.

MP3:The clientle-Since K Got Over Me

MP3: The Clientele-My own face inside the trees

I think I always figured the clientele to be slightly pagan, or at least fond of poets that way inclined such as Ted Hughes. What with their throaty evocations of city-light turning against the season, things glowing unusually at twilight, and those pure images I will never shake - such as 'a frozen red balloon against a blue sky' and '[faces] inside the trees'

All these tropes thrilled me on the earlier albums. But is Bonfires on the Heath a stretch too far? Pandering to expectations?

MP3: The Clientele-Bonfires on the Heath

I don't know about this album on first impressions. It's a deliberate step back into all that seasonal expressionism from their earlier records that people like me adore, for sure. But this time around, it seems studied. A bit forced. Like they are banging out a formula. Nearly every other song on the record namechecks autumn, september stuff, october stuff, bonfires at hallowe'en, scarecrows, harvest time, and so on, and so forth - so that in the end it all smells like a fucking nature table in 'jennifer' and 'julias' class (typically vague girls' names from the album).

Perhaps I am being way too critical about one of my favourite bands - and a moany goon.

*oh and if someone can tell me what happened to the spell-check in blogger I'd be much obliged. This post is probably full of mistakes.