AWmusic

Au Revoir Simone are easily one of the top five most important bands to me as a human being – that is, as a person, as a musician, and everything else. I may have already established myself as a mostly guitar-oriented music listener, but from the first time I heard “Through The Backyards” all that time ago, the delicately enveloping sound of three quiet girls playing keyboards has politely laid eggs in my heart and remained there ever since.

The evolution of Au Revoir Simone’s sound since their David Lynch-approved debut, Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation, has been subtle but traceable. In the beginning, whether they meant it or not, there was a sense of self-awareness in the way the band wrote classically perfect pop songs using vintage keyboard and drum machine sounds; they played their Korgs and Casios like they were Rickenbacker guitars drenched in Spectorian spring reverb, and the aesthetic wrapped them in a mystique similar to the girl groups they idolized, despite the occasionally disarming directness of their lyrics; they were described rather accurately by Pitchfork (natch) as “anti-synth pop to the Moldy Peaches’ anti-folk.” On last year’s The Bird of Music, they more openly embraced the hamminess of their sonic palette while dissipating some of the reverb, allowing their detached emotionality a more direct path to the ears as well as the heart.

On the much anticipated Still Night, Still Light, the band takes another small step in a new direction, this time towards straight electronica, a move that suits them well. Whereas early ARS favorites like “Stay Gold” and “Lark” wrapped their sorrow in milky warmth, Still Night is icy and dark, like if Axel Willner started listening to the Ronettes. The band have realized the potential of their mechanical toolset to communicate the lackadaisical state that so often accompanies heartbreak, and the music is tighter and sadder than ever – those expecting superficially sprightly swingers like “Fallen Snow” may be disappointed at how pervasive the stolid sadness on Still Night is.

Despite the stubborn joylessness of the subject matter the music sparkles with subtlety, the hooks being of the simplest construction yet finding their way onto your lips long after they’ve passed out of the air. The girls still know how to poke our heartstrings with their polite yet relentlessly direct lyrics – I almost wish I was heartbroken so I feel them more deeply. Whole days could be passed wondering wishfully at the seductive intonations of the word “all” in “All Or Nothing,” or admiring how note-perfect the keyboard arrangements are. The album gives a feeling that the girls have come into their own as songwriters and as players, and amounts to their strongest effort to date.

Au Revoir Simone – All Or Nothing
Au Revoir Simone – Anywhere You Looked

Tags: album, au revoir simone, synth pop