Many reviews and subsequent discussions of Move In Spectrums, the fourth album from Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone, will clamber over one another to be the first to point out it has indeed been a long four years since the band’s last album. That may well be, but ultimately it’s hardly worth the mention in the first place: listening to this record truly makes it feel as though that time has passed in the blink of an eye.
Any questions as to whether the band can recapture the magic after the time away are immediately deemed irrelevant the second one latches onto the earworm chorus of ‘Crazy’ or the melt-in-your-mouth harmonies of ‘Love You Don’t Know Me’. Spectrums is an immediately welcoming listening experience, presenting a versatile and smart take on indie pop that skews its guitar-based conventions; instead choosing to delve significantly further into the band’s unique triple keyboard set-up.
Each of the eleven songs on offer presents a more mature and focused ARS, offering up strikingly honest lyricism coated in honeyed, reverberating vocals and a lush backdrop of synths and keys that buzz, whirr and twirl beneath it all. Not only will Move In Spectrums please those that have followed Au Revoir Simone from their inception, it also showcases a sound that is accessible enough for those essentially coming to the band afresh.
An album that is easy to please, easier to love and difficult to get out of one’s head – in other words, their finest material to date.
4/5 stars
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
Move In Spectrums is out now through Moshi Moshi/[PIAS] Australia.
