{"product_id":"cate-le-bon-michelangelo-dying","title":"Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eAlbum of the Week: Cate Le Bon – \u003cem\u003eMichelangelo Dying\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eStaff Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eWelsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon’s new album \u003cem\u003eMichelangelo Dying\u003c\/em\u003e has, in most press reports, been described as a break-up record. That label might conjure images of sparse, piano-led laments or acoustic ballads. Refreshingly, Le Bon eschews cliché in favour of something far more intriguing and rewarding. While the songs do carry a sense of cathartic release, Le Bon frequently prefers an inversion, and each one is a meticulously crafted work of art-rock.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eOver the past decade, Le Bon has carved out a space so distinctive that her instrumental palette and songwriting approach are instantly recognisable. Though rooted in rock and folk foundations, her music has, over time, become increasingly refracted through an experimental ‘80s filter of post-punk, new wave and synth-pop. A palette where fluttering keyboards, slinky bass motifs, and deliciously off-kilter melodies are awash in a languorous, psychedelic haze. \u003cem\u003eLove Unrehearsed\u003c\/em\u003e exemplifies this, with its lilting gait and sinewy guitar solo, evoking the dreamlike drift of Kate Bush’s \u003cem\u003eHounds of Love\u003c\/em\u003e. Elsewhere, the influence of Talk Talk’s melancholic synth-pop and the idiosyncratic early solo work of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s members, particularly Yukihiro Takahashi, feels keenly present.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eAn early highlight, \u003cem\u003eMothers of Riches\u003c\/em\u003e moves with bubbling energy, carried by tight rhythms, scything guitars, and serpentine saxophone. The heartbreaking \u003cem\u003ePieces of My Heart\u003c\/em\u003e confronts the album’s central theme most directly: “this is how we fall apart \/ I’m on the ropes” and “pieces of my heart erased \/ and nothing’s gonna change.” Yet instead of leaning into anguish, the song floats on liquid backing textures that give it an otherworldly quality, as if caught in the surreal moment of refusing to believe reality. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eThat same effect runs through \u003cem\u003eMichelangelo Dying’s\u003c\/em\u003e finest moments. From the swooning shimmer of \u003cem\u003eAbout Time\u003c\/em\u003e, to the gentle lift and warped groove of \u003cem\u003eHeaven Is No Feeling\u003c\/em\u003e, the strident push and pull of the krautrock-esque \u003cem\u003eBody as a River\u003c\/em\u003e to the mysterious \u003cem\u003eRide On\u003c\/em\u003e, featuring fellow Welsh icon John Cale, which transports us to the darker corners of the human psyche. Each track contributes to the album’s unique depiction of unsettled, feverish stupor. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003eThough it wrestles with grief and its aftermath, \u003cem\u003eMichelangelo Dying\u003c\/em\u003e is ultimately an inviting and immersive record, easily one of the most resonant and accomplished works in Cate Le Bon’s remarkable catalogue.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\"\u003eIts creation led by pure emotion, Cate Le Bon’s seventh record Michelangelo Dying usurped the album she thought she was making. The product of all-consuming heartache, her feelings overrode her reluctance to write an album about love, and in the process became a kind of exorcism. What emerges is a wonderfully iridescent attempt to photograph a wound before it closes up — but which in doing so, picks at it too. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\"\u003eMusically, there is a continuation and expansion of a sound — a machine with a heart — that has taken shape over her last two records (2019’s Reward and 2022’sPompeii) as Le Bon has increasingly taken control of the playing and producing herself. As guitars and saxophones are pushed through pedals and percussion and voices are fed through filters, an iridescent, green and silky sound emerges, with flashes of the artistic singularities of David Bowie, Nico, John McGeoch and Laurie Anderson surfacing and disappearing below the waterline throughout. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\"\u003eWhat we’re left with is an ever-changing, continuous entity, a kind of song cycle. Each iteration reflects and progresses the last, “each one a shard of the same broken mirror” — shifting, glinting, concealing and revealing, depending on how it is turned in the light. There are ultimately, Cate asserts, “No revelations. No conclusions. There is no reason. There is repetition and chaos. I eventually allowed myself a vacant mind to experience it without resistance and without searching fora revelation or order to any of it.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\"\u003eAn exercise in the viscerality of life, of love, of humanity for both listener and artist, Michelangelo Dying knows what it is to hold, to be held, and to be exquisitely, profoundly alone. “The characters are interchangeable” concludes Cate, “but at the end of it all, it’s me meeting myself.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mexican Summer","offers":[{"title":"Indies Bone White Vinyl","offer_id":53206710944071,"sku":"TRI-62790","price":32.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black Vinyl","offer_id":53206713172295,"sku":"TRI-62791","price":31.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53206714319175,"sku":"TRI-62792","price":14.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0931\/9779\/5655\/files\/d044f92632e9c76389cd62bde58358a6.jpg?v=1769374369","url":"https:\/\/towerrecords.ie\/products\/cate-le-bon-michelangelo-dying","provider":"Tower Records Dublin Ireland","version":"1.0","type":"link"}