When the Willkommen Collective of chamber pop and folk bands began emerging in Brighton a few years back there were two acts that stood out from the pack, The Miserable Rich and The Leisure Society. It is no surprise that both have now gone on to slightly larger indie labels and greater success through their blend of Englishness, beautiful music, pop savvy tunes and story telling.
While for us The Miserable Rich are story tellers that happen to play great music, with The Leisure Society their music is arguably far more about the tunes than the lyrics. ‘Last of the Melting Snow’ on The Leisure Society’s debut album The Sleeper (review here) even achieved a prestigious Ivor Novello nomination.
On this their second album, as with their debut, they have once again produced some great tunes all wrapped up in a warm, cosy sense of Englishness.
The first single ‘This Phantom Life’ (see video here) is among the most pop savvy tracks, but there’s so much more radio friendly stuff here, suggesting that bigger and better things await this English treasure of a band. ‘Dust on the dancefloor’ and ‘You Could Keep Me Talking’ are our pick of the tracks.
But as with all good albums there needs to be even more than just a good sense of melody, they also need a sense of direction and purpose. For us this album gives us the urge to jump in our Neon Filler branded Morris Minor, dress up in our The Prisoner gear and take a dip in the murky waters of Bognor Regis or Portmerion, stopping off for some fish and chips and a pickled egg on the way and listening to this most summery, most eccentric, most English of albums.
8.5/10
by Joe Lepper
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