The Clientele

The aura of a sunset behind the rolling hills, an autumn evening, hunting fireflies: All that nice shit doesn't always feel so special pouring from a record anymore. But London's The Clientele preserves the rarified rush that should go with all of those images. The band even took care to release its fourth album for Merge, Bonfires On The Heath, in October of 2009. Suspended between fascination and relaxation, Alasdair MacLean's vocal melodies help to keep a friendly pulse in the band's spaciously arranged songs. The album achieves its euphoric embrace not by lazily cranking up the reverb, but through steady drizzles of guitar, melodic basslines, organ, strings, and trumpet that cohere into an invigorating glow. 

Updated 03/01/2010