Strange pleasures. Still Corners

You can listen to 'Strange pleasures' here.

In my top 10 album list of the year 2011 there were only ten spots to give away. 'Creatures for one hour' was one of the last albums to be scratched just before publishing. One of the ones that was hardest to do so. Perhaps quite rightly so, as I have not played the album often since. This spring I was pleasantly surprised by the band's second effort, Strange pleasures. The album has rotated on my iPod regularly in the past months.

Still Corners is a duo from London. Songwriter/producer Greg Hughes teams up with singer Tessa Murray and they make music together since 2007, although the production between 2007 and 2010 was only one single. The offering on Still Corners' second album is not music for all times of the day. The music has a very dreamy quality, ethereal even. Almost as if it is not real. Influences go all the way back to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, without the overly poppy elements and the synth beats of Ultravox. The accents Still Corners puts down are more subtle, but in essence the same. There are definitely some new wave elements in here. The triphop of Portishead is not very far away either, but Still Corners has Tessa Murray who fits right in with all ladies in dreampop of the 10s. It is something in other words that I have to be in the mood for. One day it's fine. On another day I do not get passed the third song.

A fine song is 'Fireflies'. It has the same quality as Lana del Rey's best songs. Murray's voice is lighter, but she strikes all the right notes here to put 'Fireflies' close in league with 'Videogames' and 'Ride'. 'Berlin lovers' is to 80s to me in sound, beats and song. A few songs later the band surprises in the very dreamy 'Midnight drive', in which sustained synth chords are woven all over the song, with a very The Cure like guitar injection. One of the songs I like best is 'We killed the moonlight'. Tessa Murray harmonises with herself, in which she shows us a higher register, in a very convincing way and guitars, with delays switched on, kick in at intervals from different angles. And what to think of those Tubeway Army sounds that rustle in the background of the song? I like it, but it's over all to soon in this case. It is in these slightly darker moments that Strange pleasures becomes ever more interesting.

The song that starts the album off, 'The trip', is very much the right choice. Arguably the best song of the album, driven by an acoustic guitar, but I have to say that the second half of the album works best as a whole. There is more variation in sound and approach, although this is minimal in tempo. Greg Hughes delves deeper in his sound repertoire and arranging skills. With the obvious result that the songs stand out more and sound less more of the same, which is the case from song three onwards. If I wanted to approach the album negatively I could write here that there is not enough originality, too many familiar things going on, but I opt for glorious variation that leads to, well, strange, aural, pleasures.

In closing it becomes clear that Strange pleasures is an album to which I have an ambiguous relation. I love it or leave it depending on the day, place, time and mood. All in all it deserves attention on this blog, for the simple reason that Strange pleasures does something to me. It sticks out, in different ways, yes. But stick out it does.

Wo.