OUTFIT - Performance

Listening to the debut by this Liverpool band, there's perhaps some reason for regret. The Outfit seemed to have all the right ingredients to become the next big thing in English pop, and the pleasant rhythmic tribulations of the first single "Two Islands" hinted at a cross between the atmospheres of Portishead and the emotional fragility of twee-pop. "Performance" arrives after two years of activity for the band, a wait that the EP "Another Night's Dreams Reach Earth Again" had made sweeter.

What's immediately clear from the opening notes of "Nothing Big" is a clear determination to embrace darker, dreamier sounds, putting together an electro-pop album devoted as much to Depeche Mode as to Hot Chip.

After two years of work and research, the Outfit's music doesn't seem to have been fully brought into focus, which is a shame, because there's enough in these ten songs to fuel more than one hope for the band's future.

Synths, electronic beats, traces of kraut and ambitions harking back to early Talking Heads now animate much of the English pop scene. The Outfit often manage to combine the aforementioned elements with conviction and strong melodic instincts: "House On Fire", for instance, is one of those songs that alone would justify any amount of critical enthusiasm, with its wicked riff, evanescent vocals and delightful interplay between rhythm and electronics.

Fortunately, it's not the only example of stylistic independence: "Thank God I Was Dreaming", with its very sixties beat, is one of the most enjoyable songs of the year, almost an electro-pop version of Orange Juice with an irresistible melodic riff.

Having established the sonic coordinates, the band soon gives in to the pop temptations of early Depeche Mode with two tracks that are pleasant but lack personality ("I Want What's Best" and "Spraypaint"), and only "Phone Ghost" breaks the album's overly light mood with heavier, at times noise-tinged atmospheres.

At times stimulating (just listen to the melodic flow of “Performace”), often pleasantly evasive (the breezy pop of “Elephant Days”), Outfit unfortunately remain a promise still unfulfilled, and “Performance” is an album that's easy to listen to without ever getting boring, but also without ever fully winning you over.

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07/10/2013