The third album title from London’s My Sad Captains might suggest an optimistic start to their run on the Bella Union label, but they’re fooling nobody. The opening song Goodbye is a melancholic farewell as an introduction, with its defeated chorus “I wanna say goodbye to you” set to music that’s warm and understated. It marks a run of breezy, mid-tempo songs, often bolstered by some surprising bass-lines such as on the deceptively layered All Times Into One or the Motown funk underpinning Extra Curricular. The organic side of My Sad Captains is always the most prominent, with the subtle infusion of electronic elements tending to surface in the last couple of minutes of the songs just as they being to fade out.
Behind the lyric’s consistently gentle caress is the odd prod to those who are mindlessly trapped in their social media bubble, as per the mantra “I wonder why you feel the need to talk so loud like there isn’t anybody else around” running throughout the krautrock-like Wide Open. Best Of Times’ subject matter is miscommunication and dislocation, while it’s delivery is clearly articulated and grounded. The result is a spacious, mellow album that drifts along like a cloud but certainly doesn’t lack substance.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best Track: Extra Curricular
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out YO LA TENGO, Comments of the Inner Chorus TUNNG
In A Word: Reflective
