The fade-out always made the most sense with shoegazer bands. Something about tides of distortion and steady chord progressions suggest an endless continuum, no real starting or stopping points. You can imagine each layer of guitar still echoing somewhere out in the cosmos. Despite their short-lived, tumultuous history, Slowdive were masters of the art, resting at an apex of pop songcraft in contrast to My Bloody Valentine's noisy psychedelia. Slowdive mainstay Christian Savill is now making music with fellow Brit Sean Hewson as Monster Movie. A bit of a misnomer, the band's combination of pedal-drenched atmosphere with soft melodies has led to a super-satisfying, solid full-length.
Coming at the heels of an earlier EP on Clairecords, Last Night Something Happened may be a bit more subdued than other offerings from the genre, but no less affecting. The album begins with an instrumental, "First Trip to the City," a nice nostalgic drift through gentle pedal fuzz and layered keyboards. Then "Shortwave" continues with introspective piano, building into a poignant little chorus as the falsetto asks, "How do you feel, when your days are behind you?" Monster Movie have a way of multi-tracking their harmonies so thickly that it all blends with the instruments into an irresistible surge of sound. "Home" adds backing vocals from Louise Hewson, whose lovely sigh gets caught up in blustery synth swirls and the crisp drum crack that punctuates the mix.
Like most dream-pop records, Last Night Something Happened is oriented towards album listening. Just when you think the whole disc is about to be filled with gloomy mid-tempo romanticism, "Waiting" charms you with sunny guitar strumming and sing-song vocals. "Sleeping on a Train" begins with a chugging locomotive riff, and takes the pace up a notch with an electrified jangle almost reminiscent of the Verve. Monster Movie flirt somewhere at the edges of Britpop, but the mellow nature of the softer songs here suggests Liverpool as much as Manchester. A brief change of pace arrives with "Star City," a forlorn piano instrumental with whupping helicopter noises and television chatter in the background.
After the interlude, the album rises to another peak. "4th and Pine" tells the story of a supposed suicide, though details are not revealed. She's left behind only a note about her disappearance, sung with heartfelt sincerity by the boys: "Shadow, shadow, that's all I seem to be/ I am a shadow of who I used to be." On paper it may sound cut from the rather cliché cloth of urban alienation, but the way that chorus wells up so hopefully and yet ends unresolved turns this into a moving sketch. These songs may be about the unavoidable sorrows of life, but they're delivered with such compassion that the record takes on a medicinal quality.
The slow, uncurling bassline of "Winter Is Coming" signals the end of the album, and the aforementioned fade-out lasts measure after measure, easing you off. Monster Movie may not be blessed with the absolutely ecstatic summery pulse of Slowdive, but it's clear they're aiming at a different season anyway. Like many songwriting duos, Savill and Hewson know when to cut a good thing short, and you're left wanting more than thirty-seven minutes. Last Night Something Happened ends at just the right moment, though, and there are few records I can recommend more this year in terms of pure pop replayability. The sleeve photos, all cut from glossy Thingmakers cardstock, show rainy highways from the first-person perspective, all running beyond the horizon line. It's clear that the album's meant to be a traveler's diversion, so maybe you'll enjoy it as a detour from your next trip to Souvlaki Space Station.
