Last time I intercepted Cole Stacey and Joseph O’Keefe were on tour as open act for Midge Ure, the first public outing after a long silence but also a precious taste of the new direction of India Electric Co..
Four years have passed since the English band’s last album, four years which have allowed the musicians to calibrate with greater attention and an adventurous spirit a record that evolves the original folk-pop attitudes towards a refined adult-pop with pleasant prog and jazz reminiscences : the red pulp of the pomegranate is a symbol of death and regeneration, and the whole album is an act of rebirth and new life.
The fifth album “Pomegranate” (third in the official discography) is the most mature and solid project of the English band. Writing and arrangements go hand in hand, electronics decisively enters the folds of soundthe rhythmic geometries are more complex (three drummers take turns), the violin enlivens the harmonic body, while Cole Stacey’s voice brings everything together.
“Pomegranate” is however a pop album, refined and elegant but pop. India Electric Co.’s music is not for hardcore rockers or music fans.lo-fi indie pop: Cole and Joseph’s compositions show neither muscles nor noir and dark languor, but, despite everything, these are songs that do not lend themselves to fleeting and compulsive enjoyment.
The fourteen tracks are soaked in groove jazzed up (la title track), of cultured folktronica and chamber-pop textures (“Balancing Act”) and of pop impulses that smell of the 80s (“Better Unsaid”), always with obsolete elegance.
India Electric Co. navigate with class in that pop limbo where they found comfort and inspiration Peter Gabriel (“Patterns”), Steven Wilson (the pop-prog with dubstep tempos of “Sirens”) and Radiohead (“What Keeps You” ). They never resort to deception or useless misdirection, giving at least a couple of quite original and remarkable songs.
The just under three minutes of “Glass Houses” are a riot of harmonic and rhythmic variations that leave their mark. Of equal intensity are the percussive tribulations of “Embers”, which form the backdrop to skillful contrasts of soul and prog textures, entrusted to electric guitar arpeggios, heartbreaking violin chords, a quote from Rachmaninoff and an intense and harsh vocal performance.
Even when the musical lexicon is enriched with romanticism, the English band stands out for its sobriety (“After The Flood”) and candor (“Face To The Sun”), while songs with a more daring rhythmic pace (“Cascade”, dedicated to Cesaria Evora, and “Boat Beneath The Sky”, inspired by Lewis Carroll) keep the attention high with a good cloud of ideas and intuitions.
Outdated, perhaps obsolete for some, India Electric Co.’s new album is a courageous act of artistic autonomy, a different album, which will perhaps have some difficulty finding a space in the recent musical panorama, but which will not disappoint the most pop lovers. refined and elegant.
06/15/2024
