The Leisure Society - Into the Murky Water

I was a massive fan of the Leisure Society's debut album, 'The Sleeper'. There was a layered pop element to their folk music that, in tracks as beautifully-crafted as A Matter of Time or A Short Weekend Begins With Longing, left me spellbound. The band, who hail from Brighton and London, earned two consecutive Ivor Novello nominations for "best song lyrically and musically" on The Last of the Melting Snow in 2009 and Save It For Someone Who Cares in 2010 - so it'll be interesting to see whether the follow-up has anything to rival their debut mettle.

Opening track 'Into the Murky Water' kicks off with an unusual african beat and tune that's a little bit similar to that on PJ Harvey's 'Let England Shake' earlier this year. The choruses lap into each other with brief instrumental solos inbetween, being a somewhat predictable attempt at harmony and beauty that has earned them the label of a British Fleet Foxes. On 'Dust on the Dancefloor' however they take steps away from the wistful harps and flutes and focus on a vaguely krautrock bassline, quick rhythms and a pretty infectious chorus. Never fear, folk enthusiasts, because 'Our Hearts Burn Like Damp Matches' is poised with blissful romance - the lyrics are a little indecipherable though thanks to Nick Hemming's sometimes too damp vocals.


The intro to 'You Could Keep Me Talking' sounds almost like an ABBA track with its upbeat pop tunes and barn-dance instrumentations - the repeated title for a chorus is a touch twee but the backgrounds are raucous enough to mask that. Perhaps the closest in sound to their debut, 'Although We Are All Lost' dances around gracefully with each syllable stressed as if wringing them out for every last drop.

On 'This Phantom Life' the band step outside of their comfort zone with some unusual rhythms and extended instrumental solos (although flutes and violins - you'd be daft to expect a guitar solo) as the group sing "if we only knew the answers, we could sew them onto T-Shirts". It ends triumphantly and would make a great album closer, but we've still 4 tracks to go. For me, though, the album's real crux is 'The Hungry Years' which promises "we'll all get somewhere somehow" and other such optimistic phrases - only to tear them back down again with 'I Shall Forever Remain an Amateur'. "We waited here too long", Hemming laments, but it ends pretty amicably ("although I will try").

Some have likened the band to Mumford and Sons and I guess that's fair to say in the same sense that the Sex Pistols are a bit like blink-182 because they used heavy riffs - sure, there's a country-pop element to 'Better Written Off (Than Written Down)' that evokes quintessentially British countryside vibes, but there's certainly a less obvious attempt at trying to craft every tune into a pop song. Clarinets and mandolins make an appearance, sounding at times like a Randy Newman Toy Story offering, but it's more authentic fun. Final track 'Just Like the Knife' kicks off with, yes!, some electric guitar twangs that thrust a country-western vibe at us. Take that, critics. Alas, they quickly subside for a more rural setting: "From these English coastal towns/ empty seas will drag us down" is a rather downcast note to close with but the chirpy "la la la!"s wash away any sense of misery.


It's quite fair to say that the band are never really game-changers. But there's a kind of poise and craft about their music - from the verbosity and poignancy in the lyrics to the layers of folksy instruments. Every note is stressed with a mixture of serious gravity and careless reverie that, to borrow some cliché, means this record is the perfect soundtrack for an English country fayre.

Rating: 7.5/10
Highlights: Dust on the Dancefloor, Just Like the Knife, The Hungry Years, You Could Keep Me Talking
Avoid: n/a
Artwork Watch: Pretty self-explanatory. Meh.