Once Twice Melody Review

The ambition is not in doubt. Eighteen songs, self produced for the first time, with a live string section woven through and a running time that puts it well past anything else they have made. At its best it is as good as they get. Superstar is a gorgeous, weightless thing. Once Twice Melody and Pink Funeral use the strings properly rather than decoratively. Over and Over has a chorus that lifts. New Romance and Sunset are both excellent.

The trouble is that at this length the palette starts to work against itself, and by the third instalment the ear has stopped registering individual songs, hearing instead one continuous eighty minute wash. Releasing it in four chapters was an attempt to solve exactly this and it half worked. There is a superb fifty minute album in here that they chose not to make. What exists is generous, luxurious, occasionally stunning, and demanding of a patience that not every listener will bring.