Album review: The Proper Ornaments – Waiting For the Summer
Supporting Toy at a sweat-drenched, mid-heatwave show at Red Gallery as part of last month’s East End Live festival, The Proper Ornaments performed a sparkling set of delicious jingle-jangle psychedelic pop, providing the perfect melodic complement to the fuzzier, more expansive soundscapes of the headline act. Waiting for the Summer, their first full-length release, is a strikingly controlled record: the band’s noisy live sound – imagine a dreamier, Byrds-influenced version of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – is condensed into a sparse, delicate recording reminiscent of the Velvet Underground.
The gentle chug of the drum machine intro on the title track – a recent single and the first song on the album – recalls the opening track from the Durutti Column’s sandpaper-clad LP of 1980, The Return of the Durutti Column. There is something of the distinctive timbre of that Martin Hannet-produced record – that sense of quiet, melancholic optimism – in this debut collection. Even the big, euphoric riffs of ‘Recalling’ and ‘Shining Bright’, the album’s standout tracks, are rendered with a certain lo-fi tautness. Oh, and these songs are short. Five of the ten tracks on the album are under 3 minutes long; three are under 2 minutes; the longest song on Waiting for the Summer weighs in at 3 minutes 23 seconds.
Taking their name from a song by cult 1960s New York sunshine pop outfit The Free Design, The Proper Ornaments have been knocking around for a couple of years now. Their live show is terrific; on this debut album they’ve reined themselves in, on purpose and to good effect. The result is an elegant and precise record, a work of understated subtlety and great promise.
The Proper Ornaments’ Waiting For The Summer is available now through Lo Recordings
– Houman Barekat
