KEY POINTS:
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Age of Understatement
(Island)
Rating: * * * *
Verdict: If the Artic Monkeys are the new Jam, is this the new Style Council?
What is that kid on? Young Alex Turner has already released two brilliant albums with his Arctic Monkeys in the past two years and now he's fitted in time for an ambitious side project.
The Last Shadow Puppets are a collaboration between him and fellow frontman Miles Kane of indie Liverpudlian up-and-comers The Rascals.
Here the pair share tag team vocals, becoming a sort of Walker Brothers: The Next Generation in front of a very big orchestra who do all sorts of Ennio Morricone and John Barry things to the songs. There's James Bond-sized strings, Bacharach sophisto-chords, wibbly-wobbly spaghetti Western topping and a reverbed grandiosity throughout. It sounds like an album that should really exist in a slightly crumpled record sleeve with a lot of guys in polo necks on the front - it doesn't sound like an album made by a couple of mates just mucking about in the studio.
It's certainly impressive for the accuracy of its homage (which includes its economical duration of just 12 songs in just over half an hour). Or how Turner - the voice of his Brit-generation - blends inseperably into duets with Kane.
It's not all orchestral elegance either - I Don't Like You Anymore, Only the Truth and Separate And Ever Deadly delivers a sort of surf-guitar lounge-punk on songs that might well have been Monkeys numbers.
Maybe because most of these songs were designed for the widescreen, they lack the lyrical sharp-focus and youthful candour of Turner's previous output. Still, it's hard not to be captivated when its melodic power and grand designs combine into the high-drama pop of the title track or the likes of My Mistakes Were Made For You with its kitchen sink arrangement. On songs like those they make ancient pop history come alive and their sheer enthusiasm for the era is thankfully matched by their craftsmanship.
