Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is a mixed bag. It can easily be argued that, like the album’s title, it’s disjointed, jumpy and lacks certain coherence. But then again, maybe that’s the entire point.
A move to Warp Records has also seen a natural progression to vocal based tracks and increased use of live instruments has produced an album with more depth than their previous releases, including several tracks with the ever-brooding voice of King Krule. It’s perhaps the sheer atmospheric density of these songs reminiscent of recent tour-mates The xx alongside more familiar sounding and dancefloor-friendly tunes such as ‘So Many Times, So Many Ways’ that make the album, as a whole, a bit disorderly. This is by no means a sin, but side-to-side with their somewhat more rounded 2010 debut ‘Crooks & Lovers’ it feels a bit like 3 years of crafting their follow up has led to an album packed with all the devices and effects Dominic Maker and Kai Campos could think of.
Yet, pretty much each track in its own right is near perfect. If instead feels that the album is a collection of stand-alone songs, each one fighting for attention. In a way, the shifting moods remind us that this isn’t a purely melancholic and emotional album produced by The xx, it’s an electronic album that ultimately is meant to be danced to. There’s even a hint of Crystal Castles in the drone of ‘Slow’ which is probably the last thing you’d expect in a song by the rather more controlled Mount Kimbie. But it works.
Obviously the comparisons to The xx aren’t baseless as the South London trio recently invited Mount Kimbie to play their series of mini-festivals across Europe, Night + Day, which sees its UK instalment at Hatfield House on 22nd June, also featuring acts like Solange and Poliça.
By Joey Mayberry
Dance Yrself Clean
