Cate Le Bon - classic or dud

Cate Le Bon wrote some of my favorite words of 2013 on her album Mug Museum. White Fence is the swirly psych-like music of Tim Presley. Cate and Tim are friends — Cate played guitar on a tour with White Fence — and so now there's this: DRINKS.

DRINKS has an album coming August 21 and this is the title track, called "Hermits on Holiday." The percussion is a machine at the start, the guitar distinctly Cate, as is that thickly Welsh voice. Tim plays bass on this song, though he told me on the phone that they swap instruments a lot on the album. When that bass kicks in, so does White Fence drummer Nick Murray and the song's lockstep rhythm loosens up, as if it's had a drink. The easy joy and silliness here make me look forward to hearing the full album, Hermits on Holiday.

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2015/05/18/406758565/song-premiere-drinks-hermits-on-holiday?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=allsongs&utm_term=music&utm_content=20150518

Love Cate, but the song is about as boring as the name of her new band. It's also kind of annoying. It's a shame because I kind of had a feeling they'd sound like this.

Classic - maybe my favorite live performer right now, I find her mesmerizing. Bowery Ballroom show on Monday was great, and what I've heard of the new record sounds v. promising (love the Wonderful video). Seen her four times now and each time she makes it new.

I like the new one. I don't think any of the songs are as strong as the best material on Cyrk or Mug Museum, but her guitar playing remains great. Her backing band is pretty cool, too: Josh Klinghoffer from RHCP and the drummer from Warpaint.

H. Hawkline also rules. People need to listen to him.

"Find Me" is awesome.

I think on first acquaintance I might like Crab day best of all CLB's records. Generally she ricochets back and forth between dolorous gorgeousness & a kind of endearing spazziness, whereas this one sort of does both at the same time all the way through. I certainly don't hear any dip in the songwriting either from mug museum. i was a bit worried after drinks, but this great.

Nothing as good as 'Shoeing the Bones' or 'Fold the Cloth' to my ears.

The album has grown on me, but was a let down for the first bunch of listens. Had to come to terms with the realization that as long as she's so drawn to LA, she's not going to be making more 'Shoeing the Bones' or 'Fold the Cloth' styled material. I rate her as one of the top minds at work right now, so I'm not sure if I'm cutting her too much slack, or catching up with where she's going.

It reminds me a bit of H. Hawkline's songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7KzWaLIHIA

Great track - like the Ashes to Ashes visual cues. She's playing here tonight, but Monday night shows after work are a drag.

never seen a less than great show (but understand getting out on a Monday). she's transfixing.

Pretty bummed to not feel like I can go tbh - love her. I work nights as well :-/

she's always been so great. and she's getting weirder. love love love it.

Listening to the Banana album right now.

Enjoyable vibraphone wanderings over saxophone and piano.

I've always loved al little vibraphone. Not exactly a Cate Le Bon release, but Banaa includes her and the backing band she performed Crab Day with when she toured last year.

Stephen Black – Clarinet, Saxophone
Huw Evans – Guitar, Synthesizer
Josh Klinghoffer – Marimba, Synthesizer
Cate Le Bon – Piano, Vibraphone
Stella Mozgawa – Bass, Marimba, Percussion
Josiah Steinbrick – Vibraphone, Piano

http://leavingrecords.com/releases/lr105-banana-live/

Josh Klinghoffer of RHCP, of course.

she had a really gorgeous feature on one of the recent manic street preachers albums, i need to check out her stuff

4 Lonely Roads, really nice. Also sang I Lust U with Neon Neon.

Just picked up Ghouls by her partner, H. Hawkline. CLB plays and sings on it and it very much has similar vibe, really good

"Rock Pool" is a really nice EP. Easy to see how these cuts did not make it on "Crab Day", they definitely feel like solid b-sides. If you love that album this is a nice reprise of that style and the cuts are overall a bit more accessible and far more chill.

There's a sorta experimental film called Tomorrow Is Always Too Long by a young director named - and I kid you not - Phil Collins, which uses Cate Le Bon songs from Mug Museum but redone by a bunch of Glaswegian amateurs. The version of Are You With Me Now is particularly good. Anyways, it's recommended for fans, and is a fun film in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUb1Y41lz3s

There's a sorta experimental film called Tomorrow Is Always Too Long by a young director named - and I kid you not - Phil Collins, which uses Cate Le Bon songs from Mug Museum but redone by a bunch of Glaswegian amateurs. The version of Are You With Me Now is particularly good. Anyways, it's recommended for fans, and is a fun film in general.

Any clues as to how to watch this, hear this etc? Found part of one song on the trailer on youtube but other than that nothing on the usual places.

Sorry. I kinda have nothing. Perhaps write the director, ask for a link?

Two of his films are soundtracked by Gruff Rhys.

He also directed the Crab Day short...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56y8DPVTX14

https://m.mixcloud.com/sessun/cate-le-bon-pour-sess%C3%B9n-s%C3%A9lection-musicale-n9/

H Hawkline's In the Pink of Condition is good if you're a fan of Cate's last album. She plays on and produced it. Live, they switch between each other's bands. She does the same with Tom Presley, I've heard. Wasn't too crazy about his last one she produced, though.

been on a kick with her, she's amazing. mug museum was my point of entry, but wow it kind of loses momentum in the second half

Whereas Cyrk takes off in its second half.

Cyrk II continues the momentum.

Cryk rockets from the start in my opinion. Has anyone heard the new drinks lp?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrqphXJZqS8

New H. Hawkline album is really good. Cate's fingerprints are all over it. They've got a lot in common. She produced and plays on the record, like she did on the last one.

important thread revive: are she and Tim Presley a thing?

seems so? Cate's classic as hell

so classic

they met when he was in the Fall, no?

She's also doing something with Bradford Cox when they're in Marfa.

I thought she was dating the guy behind H. Hawkline.

I assume thread was revived for this:

https://drinks.bandcamp.com/album/hippo-lite

Hippo Lite is pretty lame.

Just sounds like bored people making boring music.

I guess the first one sort of sounded like that, but it was a LITTLE adventurous.

She's producing the new Deerhunter album. Apparently. Will be looking forward to that.

Still think Hippo Lite is pretty bad.

I really like Hippo Lite, I find it quite lovely, creepy and peppered with great songs, strange interludes and mirth. For me it has the same kind of elusive quality as Jane from occupied europe, odyshape or witch cults of the radio age where i listen to it compulsively, but it seems unfamiliar each time.

It would be an excellent soundtrack to a very stoned, very hot summer day spent by a brook.

It does drift out of focus a bit towards the end i grant you.

rock pool

Hippo Lite might be the first legit bad thing she's done. she and Tim should've sat on it for a few weeks and/or given it another good listen and/or played it for a few friends and then decided it was best left on the shelf.

I like it better than the first Drinks, but I struggle to re-listen to either record. Their styles would seem similar enough, but their eccentricities don't blend particularly well.

This conversation between Cate and Ariel Pink is kind of amusing...

https://www.talkhouse.com/ariel-pink-talks-with-cate-le-bon-for-the-talkhouse-podcast/

nice, thanks for sharing

saw her play a show on sunday entirely on piano with her sax/clarinet guy steve accompanying. was fucking great. she covered mccartney's waterfalls

I'm looking forward to seeing her for the first time tomorrow night - glad to hear she's on form.

Waterfalls: what a brilliant idea for a cover

the group listening steve/sweet baboo did last year is pretty enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKHPPP_3QPU

assume they were part of the gig somehow

I like the new song

what seems initially like a nice dreamy atmosphere thing soon turns into an actual song its VERY GOOD SHIT yes indeed

feature in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/08/cate-le-bon-interview-michelangelo-dying?

The foamy churn of this album is really luscious. It's crushing but incredibly easy on the ears. She's brilliant

That description captures it rather well, one listen in! Dense but with a little less of Pompeii's (slight) queasiness?!? Even John Cale is somewhat submerged in the din. (Though I am using the worst speakers in the world right now.) I'm a little shocked that I'd forgotten this was due!

I liked the initial singles well enough, but this album as a whole is starting to really emerge after a few listens. Other tracks like Body As A River and Mothers Of Riches are killing me, so good.

It is dense! I feel like some of that maybe could get squashed in streaming, but I've been playing the lossless tracks (haven't gotten a chance at the LP yet) and there's a lot going on.

Really must remember to catch the tour.

She is great live (though I hope she's willing to mix in some older songs this time out)

Well said, technopolis. I'd add that it sounds fucking enormous.

This is shaping up to be one of my absolute favorites of the year. I've had it on repeat since getting it and have enjoyed it more and more with each listen.

I love the way that songs like "Body as a River," "Pieces of My Heart," and "Mothers of Riches" build vertically, blooming into these wonderfully ornate flowers. Melodic flourishes coming in and out of focus, some of which remain just flourishes, others which are reincorporated throughout the remainder of the song. It gives the listener so many ways to engage with the music, whether you want to just let the foamy churn, as technopolis called it, wash over you, or whether you'd rather delight in the intricacy of the aforementioned flourishes. Sonically akin to those old Powers of Ten shorts. And through it all, goddamn can she sing.

The percussion and Le Bon's guitar playing remind me a bit of the Durutti Column. Cocteau Twins is the other clear reference point imo, but each song bears the indelible mark of CLB.

with the last album I was convinced somehow that Avalon was a big sonic touchstone / inspiration - a lingering sense of that impression with this one too but not as strongly

Been meaning to listen to Roxy Music's post-Eno stuff, maybe I'll actually do it now

Ooh, Valentina Magaletti percussion all over this!

The oft-referenced denseness of this album is everything; it lures you in with these swirling layers of glistening murk that demand repeat plays to catch all the detail, and then the hooks of the songs take root and it is so incredibly nourishing. As albums go, it's the best of all worlds in that it's really hard to imagine overplaying it to the point of losing interest. You want to bask in it all the time. It makes so much other current stuff sound really thin and ephemeral.

I think maybe she's just genuinely better than, you know, everyone else, at the moment

really great sound. the other touchstone for me is the saxophone playing on “sound of vision” and, like “tvc 15”, similar kind of slithering mood

incredibly nourishing

very otm

Pompieii didn't ever connect for me, but this one does. All the layers of phased and modulated tones align so well. I hear a distillations of so much from 1975-85 Cale, Eno, Bowie, Wyatt, Ferry, like a lost Editions EG album. But it's also its own thing, so different from where she started out, yet maintaining her weirdly cryptic wisdom.

obsessed

Pompieii didn't ever connect for me

I loved it, and went back to it today and somehow it sounded even better in the light of her excellent new album - had a similar experience a few years back with Pompeii & Reward, there is some kind of slow release magic going on with her songs i reckon

Saw the 1st show of the North American tour in DC at the Howard Theatre. Pretty good (<ducks> but not amazing). A little of it was too samey tempo-wise and melody -wise but "Is it Worth It (Happy Birthday)" and a bunch of others sounded very good, and clearly distinct from another. She was going for kinda of a Handmaid's tale look at times with her head covered, and the band came on to the Ivor Cutler song sung by Linda Hirst "Women of the World" that Jim O'Rourke later covered and changed slightly. The setlist emphasized the new album and was similar to her recent European tour

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/cate-le-bon/2026/the-howard-theatre-washington-dc-13412575.html

https://pitchfork.com/news/cate-le-bon-and-st-vincent-reunite-for-always-the-same/

Cate and St. Vincent have a new song (that Cate sang in DC Monday)

St. Vincent joined her tonight for the new song