Singles

The Invisible - OK

Martin Goodhead 21/05/2009

Rating: 3/5

'Ok'- so mysterious, so intransitive, so... asinine sarcasm ready-anticipated. Been pr-schooled. Actually 'OK' sounds rather interesting—like LCD Soundsystem if Murphy made tunes specifically designed to be played at volume 3 in antiseptic offices like a slow fug of bland disquiet, an existential metaphor writ forth. Like a still japanese rock garden with the ripples forming a face in the pool.

'Critics' compare them to Radiohead-- this is largely void on available evidence, unless that contrary devil Thom's started impersonating blue-eyed nu-soul and injecting white powders, but the line-assembled monotony has been spiked by some joker with washes of idioteque-style backwards synth-strings-- which makes it about as subversive as any single off 'Tangled Up'. Or the specially conceived accompaniment to one those 'this is your modern life' Tate Mod/Goma/Moma installations. And who complained about M83's none more John Hughes sunset soundtrack take on shoe-gaze, Daft Punk's digging of the blue veined spore-cheese remnants of 87's Europop as vintage haute cuisine. So taking a Paul Young-aping AOR duet, putting nitro-glycerine in its veins, dolling it up and treating it like Jennifer Connolly in Requiem for a Dream qualifies for similar kudos-points. It has all the iridescent summer sunshine vibes of the famous Soundgarden song; between its vocalists some twisted subtext, like the crooked- half whore smiles at a couple's kareoke before a screeching breakup, in the background you can sense the hiss of her make-up cracking with confessions . Try it on headphones; quease-inducing as a Irreversible- Martyrs double-bill, but it has some nebulous merit to it; the sound of an airless claustrophobia accompanied by soft vocals and the universal click track in your head of pulmonary tension, honestly. It's the sound of numb.

Release date: 18/05/2009