MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds

It's not often that you'll see me download an album off the back of one single from 2010, especially since I've markedly decreased my reviewing output now I've enrolled at university, but Mark Ronson's fantastically daft French-tinged Bang Bang Bang has done just that. Introducing MNDR, the deceptively solo NYC duo comprised of performer and only recognisable entity Amanda Warner, and background man Peter Wade. Think the twenty-tens' Goldfrapp, if you will.

The problem is that, since 2010, so many indie-pop boy/girl duos have come and gone. Cults, Cat's Eyes, Purity Ring, Beach House, Best Coast and Sleigh Bells have all made some ripples in recent years, and that's overlooking the two giants of that particular field (Goldfrapp, Saint Etienne). What exactly will make MNDR stand out from the crowd? Apart from the glasses, apparently.

Feed Me Diamonds - the first collective piece of material from the duo since 2010's E.P.E. - opens with the dazzling earworm '#1 in Heaven', a kind of Lady GaGa-styled euro-synth stomper that references the socialite-cum-bank robber Patty Hearst ("Send my greetings" a notorious kiss-off from the infamous figure). Stark improvements in production and work with long-time Robyn (and recent-time Lana del Rey) collaborator Patrik Berger [not the Liverpool footballer] are made evident on the slick 'Stay' and infectious 'Faster Horses', together an as effective build-up/comedown duo as they come. For all of MNDR's subversive remixing of historical quotes, though, there's the intermittent lax output.

In 'Blue Jean Youth' (what exactly is it with blue jeans being supposedly nostalgic, by the way?), the lyrics are vague and pretty generic, but the choral synths half make up for that. On 'Fall in Love with the Enemy' we're bombarded with horns and aggressive percussion, but that all seems like a cunning distraction from a tired lyrical theme. 'U.B.C.L.', an edit of EP single 'C.L.U.B.', somehow found its way onto Jersey Shore, giving some insight of its easy accessibility, but the whole repeating-four-letters-as-a-chorus thing seems equally old. On the other hand, the title track, a reference to Marina Abramovic, churns out fresh attention-grabbing beats and melodies craftily.

Some tracks aren't quite so careful in their approach though: the intro to 'Burning Hearts' couldn't be more scalding if Katy Perry took a shit on a CD with it on. On occasions I feel like the track is initiating some form of toothache in me, but there's no denying its candour. More industrial-pop influences are seen on the squelchy, dark 'Sooner or Later', where Warner really embraces her dramatic side with lyrics of poison and doom. "I was frustrated with America, with music", she writes of the track. Perhaps the odd-one-out track of the album, 'Waiting' is so sonically different that it's initially distracting, but boasts a kind of oriental aesthetic that makes it all the more 80s. Similarly brash to 'Burning Hearts', 'Sparrow Voices' could quite easily be the album's Bad Romance if it weren't for the 3 or 4 nice movements being mashed into each other so jarringly. The album then closes with the blindingly average 'I Go Away'.

The album's extremely reminiscent of Ladyhawke's 2008 self-titled debut: a collection of quite excellent pop songs and fascinating, fresh hooks... sadly interspersed with stale ideas and repetitive melodies. For all of those low points though the stand-out tracks are captivating enough to warrant more than two or three cherry-picks for the inattentive's iPod playlists. Let's just hope that she doesn't half-heartedly "go rock" in four years.

Rating: 7.5/10
Highlights: #1 in Heaven, Burning Hearts, Sooner or Later, Stay, Feed Me Diamonds
Avoid: Blue Jean Youth, I Go Away

Artwork Watch: Someone please take away the contrast filters
For fans of: Marina and the Diamonds (when she was good), Icona Pop, Ladyhawke
Up next: The Killers