For more than a decade now (wow), the Clientele have been reminding their faithful that music that on its face seems like simple tunefulness can disguise a very real, tangible art-pop aesthetic. In their case, they've been playing with small gradients of shadows and light, memory and nostalgia, ephemera and mundanity, love and despair, and the tricks that each of the above can play on the heart and mind. Whether bathed in reverb-- as they often were at the start-- or performing more crisp, sunny indie pop, the group's charms could seem slippery or elusive but, once hooked, most people are willing to follow them around from album to EP to one-off track and back again.
Well, this is one of those EPs. Available now through eMusic and soon via venerable Spanish indie pop label Acuarela, That Night, a Forest Grew is a four-track collection steeped in the growing sonic confidence and clarity of the Clientele Mk. II but harkening back to their earlier lyrical pursuits. Unlike the band's previous two, between-album EPs-- the hazy, London-soaked Lost Weekend (2002) or Ariadne (2004) and its minimalist sound sculptures-- That Night seems less of a unified statement and more of a collection of songs. Thematic and sonic themes are intertwined throughout the record, but there are no instrumental interludes or breathers or mood pieces.
Lead track "Retiro Park" seems like a throwback on paper-- particularly if one assumes the titular place is a London landmark. Instead it relocates the group to Madrid. There's a certain irony in the group leaning a bit on brass once they depart London, and these subtle touches unsurprisingly blend well with the walking guitar lines that have populated their last two albums. Sonically, "Retiro Park" is very much a post-Strange Geometry track, and a nice table-setter for what's to come. Middle tracks "Share the Night" and "George Says He Has Lost His Way in This World" are among the more upbeat songs the band has produced, with hints of the uptight disco of Orange Juice settling nicely alongside more traditionally Clientele influences such as Tom Verlaine. Straightforward pop songs, they find the group swinging and grooving about as much as they're ever apt to do. Compact and tight, they each even betray hints of Alasdair Maclean's more rugged, aggressive guitar playing, which at times comes to the fore during the band's live performances.
The EP wraps up with the title track, which-- as fans might have guessed from the title-- is a spoken-word track that, although it bears no obvious ties to childhood, at least seems to flirt with magical realism. Dark and slightly sinister, the track envelopes the protagonist and his negotiation of unfamiliar settings both likely real (a London fog) and possibly imagined (the forest of the title), locating sides of suburban England that the group had yet to articulate. All in all, it's another charming and fully satisfying release from one of the world's more unsung and quietly wonderful bands. Despite containing some of the group's most immediate work, this EP won't change anyone's mind about them but it won't do anything to disappoint the many who already care.
