The Clientele - Best Band Since The Smiths

Interesting interview!

We’ve always had the ambition, but we’re always been too poor and too impatient to do it in the way we wanted to. I feel like we’re just starting that journey, really. I feel like we can do a lot more in terms of electronic beats and a lot more in terms of instrumental textures. It really sets you free, it’s like having a whole different palette of colors to use. I said I’d only do another Clientele record if we grew. We couldn’t keep on making Bonfires on the Heath indefinitely. We had to break through and do something else. We were actually able to.

On first listen, the electronic beats and other new production touches were exactly what I liked least about it. Great album overall, though!

i want to see these guys live again. I saw them maybe 9-10 years ago. Beach House was opening for them!

I remember feeling the same way about God Save the Clientele-- weren't there banjos or something else "adventurous" on there? :/

xpost

think there's pedal steel on that one.
Not like they've gone and made an "electronic" album by any stretch here, everything is subtly/smoothly incorporated to my ears.

Beautiful on first listen. They've managed to broaden the sonic landscapes while remaining rooted in classic Clientele tunes.

This album is kind of perfect isn't it? It's everything that's great about them but with a few new surprises (mainly the scope of instruments they've used). I can't stop listening to it. They've timed the released brilliantly too.

Falling Asleep is like a Lamplight-level masterpiece, I can listen to it on repeat for ages. Especially the album version that has an extra couple of minutes of outro!

this album
rocks very well
much Clientele

This is a pair of old slacks, slipped on for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
:'(

Apropo response from a 2015 interview with Alasdair MacLean:

We’ve talked about the sound and atmosphere you create as a band and you’ve mentioned that with each album you’re trying to refine that sound and get at the essence of it. Some critics have a tendency to accuse acts of rehashing old songs. What’s your opinion on that?

I think that I completely understand why people would say that about The Clientele, as they’re viewing us in 2015 as a Rock ‘n’ Roll band. The kind of rock band that has to focus on reinvention, this Miles Davis or Picasso styled reinvention. But in 2015, Rock ‘n’ Roll bands don’t mean anything and The Clientele isn’t one; they’re an art project. Again I know that sounds aggressively pretentious.

What it is it’s a refinement of a certain idea and it’s something that’s lasted a couple of decades and a lot of people have contributed to it. So you shouldn’t expect a Kid A from us or a Screamadelica. That’s all bullshit now anyway. I don’t think it matters now, I don’t think it has any meaning anymore. What we’re doing is just rumbling on with this art project that’s been going on since the ’90s.

Our whole aim and our whole methodology is separate from what they’re looking at, what their expectations are. We don’t have that idea of the difficult third album, that’s foreign to what we do.

oops spelled apropos wrong

that's a great response

It's so rare you hear an actually interesting answer from someone in a band

i was listening to the sassoon lyric and i finally looked to refresh how and who and why i knew this... ohhh, yeah. that was really moving actually.

OK the reason I'm not on board with the assessments upthread that this is their best album is that the compositions feel a bit bloated. Just a bit overthought imo. Cynical read is that they're compensating for otherwise slightly less inspired melodies...

Still, I love it. The Clientele is my favorite band. Just looking at it in comparison the the rest of their catalog.

New album is very good but it's not their best.

are we ready for an album poll?

Ready! It's the perfect time of year to back through their albums again.

we can poll the greatest comp too!

ok then. i'll put up the album poll this weekend. great idea to poll the greatest hit comp as well.

Strange POLLometry ...

I Had to POLL This

God POLL The Clientele

We can POLL together

POLLiceman getting lost

POLLcelain

POLLing time and money doesn't mean a thing

Poll is up. Very excited to see how many voters and what is the consensus view. Have to say that I forgot about The Minotaur... don't think that was their best effort. I only included full length albums.

Minotaur starts well but has a drop in quality a few tracks in iirc, weird EP but ofc nice that they were trying something new

it's that time of year

They were very good the other week. No new songs on the night but I believe there are some goodies in the works.

God Save The Clientele is the fourth studio album by British indiepop band The Clientele. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, it broadens the band's palette through the use of pedal steel and slide guitar.

wow, never knew this

anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxaPeBJ0oa8

I'd love to see them again

Yeah GSTC was recorded, barring a few overdubs, at Mark Nevers's studio (where a lot of Lambchop's work to that point was recorded); the final mix was done at Bark in London. I've heard conflicting things about whether the Nevers mixes exist in any meaningful form.

hell yeah time to break out my Suburban Light and Strange Geometry LPs

i always thought strange geometry was obviously the best one but now i think I've listened to GSTC way more in the past few years

the highs of GSTC are very high but I do find some of it a little treacly/pastiche-y, moreso than usual

after many years of trying I finally cracked The Violet Hour...no idea why I always found it so impenetrable

the house always wins

I revisit It's Art Dad very often

I mean I constantly listen to them overall but I wanted to mention that one in particular

In an August sky-y-y-y-y

I'm thinking these days that Music for the Age of Miracles is up there with the Violet Hour in my Clientele album rankings, it's so so good

I want to like it that much but I'm still really turned off by the bloated compositions and distracting backing vocals.

Don't mean to be a downer about it though... I know it's loved here. I want to love it. Though I've said before that I think I would love a "Naked" version of the record!

GSTC is my least favorite exactly because it sounds like it was recorded in Nashville, which basically means overproduced imo

(ha, sorry, I guess "nashville == overproduced sound" is about the most cliched thing a person can say)

the Nudie suits were also ill-advised

So I’ve really be into As Night Is Falling. The one with all the moody organ (or synth) and Alasdair singing about Ms Jones. Whatever that first chord is from the organ - so nice.

it's very good

bit of an outlier for Alasdair vocal-wise, somewhat strained, soulful in its pathos

Those ghostly dreamlike songs they do are my favorite.

I love 6am Morningside the most! It really captures the quiet peaceful mood of early morning.