ALBUM REVIEW: Temporary Pleasure by Simian Mobile Disco

Right, well after what now feels like an EPIC hiatus to focus on my own original music in it's various forms, I'm back. And if you're lucky, I may have a brand new rap. Although I've gotta say this is unlikely. (And yes it went very well thank you. I got paid! *Gasp*)

Ok, I fell in love with SMD when I saw them play live at Reading festival last year. Quickly hunting down the album after the weekend, I discovered that I was not the only one to rate this long player as a class piece of electronic music. But now the sophomore album rolls around, and people seem to be turning in far less glittering reviews of their once fabled "saviours of dance music".

This album takes a much more poppy line than prior efforts, with collaborations from Beth Ditto, Hot Chip and Gruff Rhys amongst others, and the tendency is start throwing the "sell out" shit around your cage. (See what I did there? That's a monkey joke.) But the truth is that it just won't stick. TRUE, opener "Cream Dreams" sounds like a Gruff Rhys track Ft. SMD, and I don't know WHAT they were thinking when "Turn Up the Dial" made the cut, but for the most part the inclusion of big name collaborators doesn't bother me.

And I'll tell you why.

Anyone who claims Simian Mobile Disco have focused too much on the guest artists and are using this to shift units, or whatever, are clearly forgetting two things; first, that 50% of SMD is James Ford, who has produced tracks for Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine, and so working with pop/indie artists is nothing new for him; and second that 10,000 horses can't be wrong.

You see, while there are some tracks that are incredibly poppy, there are others that retain the hard edged, minimal house feel of the SMD that people loved, and indeed improve on it. "10000 Horses Can't Be Wrong" is an amazingly gritty, blippy and exciting club chooon, and "Synthesize" has all the hallmarks of classic hard dance music. Yet these harder tracks sit well in the album, and never feel out of place.

This gives me the impression that while this album is certainly different to the other, it is not a cynical attempt to hit the mainstream, but mearly a natural progression of a band trying something different. They might be suffering from "Oh, now everyone likes them they aren't as cool anymore" syndrome, but fuck it- its still 4/4 right?

Cheers.
Chris/Audio Bigot. xx