The Singles Jukebox

Oh-oh, we’re half-way the-re…

[Video][Website]
[7.50]

Mark Sinker: The demon or whatever it is is often angry when called: “Why have you disturbed me?” is the cliche, and the sense is they’ve been violently and uncomfortably tugged across dimensions to do your bidding, and resent it. Can’t tell yet how tantrummy the Geist of Ambience that GP invoked might turn out, but you certainly feel how dragged and stretched it’s been to get here.
[8]

Doug Robertson: It’s summer at the substation. Blossoming tendrils wind their way up the legs of the pylon, while the buzz of the bees intermingles with the buzz of the voltage packed cables hanging heavily in the air above. The air crackles with the scent of flowers and the tingle of power while a cloud floats lazily in the sky, its dark shadow hovering on the periphery of the scene. This is bliss. Of a sort.
[8]

Jer Fairall: Matrimonial bliss as envisioned by a Sophia Coppola soundtrack, something about the challenge to sustain lasting human connections while submerged in the hustle of urban and global overstimulation. That more of it rests on the song’s warm, glitchy hum than on any fleeting array of found sounds and pan-ethnic flourishes means love and home win in the end, making this just about the sweetest of ear candy.
[8]

Anthony Easton: Squelchy rain falling from the sky, ever so subtle beats, and a general atmospheric loveliness. The sweetness, and the slowed down ambience mark it as a new direction, but not an awful one.
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: Is the marriage between elegance and dullness? Sure, it’s pretty, but if it has a use beyond wallpaper I’m too unsophisticated to detect it.
[6]

Kat Stevens: Warm and cosy Kompakt-style microbibble with a bonus accordion sample! Pleasant concept but not earth-shatteringly compelling (draw hilarious parallel with my opinion of marriage as an institution here).
[7]

Josh Langhoff: The chords occupy the sunny nexus of Boy Meets Girl’s “Waiting On a Star to Fall”, Mylo’s “In My Arms”, and (forgive me) Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, one neverending frozen moment of peace and bliss. Just like married life! It could lose 30 seconds or so, and I wish the sound effects didn’t all come and go in eight-bar repetitions, but it’s a lovely moment.
[7]

Martin Skidmore: I’m a fan of his work, though I love this a bit less than the last couple. It still has a rare warmth and amount of interest as its crackling, hissy samples keep doing different things around and below the housey tones.
[8]

Zach Lyon: I like that he always seems intent on telling stories with his songs, that they have such a linear narrative line. This one just doesn’t sound like anything sonically new for him, though.
[7]

Iain Mew: I’ve now listened to this more than ten times in an attempt to describe why it’s so enjoyable. This is in addition to the many, many times that I’ve listened to the album since October. I still don’t think I’ve got it, but I could quite happily listen to it another hundred times without ever being able to seize on a specific, or ever getting bored of its shifting scenery.
[8]