The Electric Soft Parade
Monday 17th June 2013
With: Crayola Lectern
At The Green Door Store
Doors 7:30 pm
Price £8 / £10
“And now it’s back to work, as if I never left” is a lyric from The Sun Never Sets Around Here, the opening track on The Electric Soft Parade’s long-awaited fourth album, and it couldn’t sum up IDIOTS better. Yes, it’s been a long six years since the band’s last record, 2007’s No Need To Be Downhearted, but they’ve not missed a step.
They’ve used the time wisely, though. There’s been solo albums and session work, and times when no music was happening at all. After recording music almost solidly from 1997 to 2009, the pair needed a break – the time and space to dream it all back up again, to say something new. As a result, IDIOTS is their best album yet, possessing an as-yet-unheard focus, the brothers’ distinctive ELO-via-The Everly Brothers blood harmonies gloriously intact, not so much as a note surplus to requirements. Their 2002 debut, Holes In The Wall, won its plaudits – a Mercury Prize-nomination among them – but there was something of the kitchen sink about its sound, and while they’ve re-teamed with the producers of that album, Chris Hughes and Mark Frith, for IDIOTS, the approach was quite different.
Opener The Sun Never Sets Around Here immediately signals of IDIOTS’ intent; a low-key beginning rising into a chiming, instantly familiar wall of guitars and hand claps. The glorious melodies continue with Summertime In My Heart, which sets lesson-for-life lyrics against Teenage Fanclub-esque backing.
Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to see The Electric Soft Parade live at The Green Door Store. Tickets on sale Wednesday 1st May 9am.