There's a moment in "Proof", a song on the new Methyl Ethel album, Are You Haunted?, where things open up and a lush synth-figure takes things into the stratosphere. It's a moment that symbolizes so much of what makes this band a winning proposition. More than ever, the sound of this outfit is born from a unlikely marriage of art rock and New Wave. In that marriage is a clash between head and heart, with melody jostling with inventiveness consistently. That Jake Webb navigates this terrain so successfully is what makes this record another highly listenable one.
While "Proof" is benefited from vocals from Stella Donnelly, "Something To Worry About" is anchored around Webb's fluttering vocals. Equal parts Byrne and Tovey, Jake balances cleverness and an expression of emotion with ease. Everything on Are You Haunted? has a similar vibe, with the textures given the sort of warmth we find most frequently on Future Islands releases, to name a peer.
And while "Neon Cheap" suggests a path towards something that sounds as mainstream as, say, Local Natives, Methyl Ethel are far more interesting in the moments, like the one mentioned in "Proof", or the flashes of stark melody in "Kids on Holiday", where Webb sticks to his own path and creates music wholly unlike lots of what's out there these days. Iconoclastic and still accessible, this is sometimes transformative stuff, with the material clearly owing a debt to Eighties keyboard-based bands, yet still sounding more like the kind of group that would open a concert for Kate Bush in 1984, you know? Call it art rock, but Jake Webb keeps Methyl Ethel a proposition that's not too obviously pretentious, where tunes are given space to breathe, and instrumentation is used to create effects around the edges of the hooks.
Are You Haunted? is out on Friday via Future Classic.
[Photo: Xan Thorrhhoea]