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Liverpool-based trio The Wombats have taken the baton of synth-tinged
Brit-pop from Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand and rehashed
its vestiges for their second full-length album This Modern Glitch.
Produced by Eric Valetine and Garret "Jacknife"
Lee (The Cars, Editors, Bloc Party), This
Modern Glitch revitalizes the familiar sounds of '80s electro-dance-pop
tracks and sets it on an axis of processed beats making the songs
polished with a club-ready finish.
Leaning heavily on synth-wreathed flourishes in "Our Perfect
Disease" and "Techno Fan" like The Rapture,
The Wombats take their cue from many synth-pop bands before them treading
along a path that has already been forged. Drummer Dan Haggis
provides staggering beats along "Girls/Fast Cars" and plows
soft prattling taps through "Jump Into The Fog" as bassist/keyboardist
Tord Overland-Knudsen creates a swathe of shimmering soundscapes.
Frontman Matthew Murphy moves his vocals to project emotion
in the verses like in "Tokyo" as he proclaims, "If
you love me let me go / Back to that bar in Tokyo / Where the dreams
from my past / Leave me in peace." The lyrics lean towards reflecting
about the past like in "1996" with words that resound, "I
had no cares in the 1990's / I knew of no downfalls / The war was
breaking out all around me / My concerns were with prank calls."
The Wombats make pleasurable synth-pop which results in a stylish
club-based album, but nothing that separates them from their predecessors.
Conversely, their debut album A Guide To Love, Loss, and Desperation
in 2008 was driven by a pop-punk propulsion, which has been traded
in for the chic pop threads of This Modern Glitch.
-Susan Frances
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