pogoism

I first heard of Neon Neon when The Guardian released some tracks to download relating to Glastonbury back in June. The track they had for Neon Neon was “Belfast”, so that instantly drew my attention (though I hoped it wouldn’t be like the last track I heard with the same title…

So, I thought I’d give their album a spin, see what it was like.

Neon Neon comes from the pairing of Boom Bip and Gryff Rhys (from Super Furry Animals), and were originally called Delorean, for reasons that you’ll see later.

When I first heard Belfast, I immediately drew comparisons to other bands, notably Chromeo and Neosupervital. Overall, the album is a weird mix of 80s electro, hip-hop and indie, but they manage to blend the three so that they work really well.

Stainless Style is a concept album based on the life of John De Lorean, a car designer with a playboy reputation. Said Rhys of the idea

a full-on concept record about the wives and lives [...] Of John DeLorean, so it’s been a real pleasure to write about a specific subject, and to think about various scenarios relating to his life and imaginary scenarios that may have happened to him on the way. And so musically we’ve been writing in a style that personally mirrored his kind of fast, cocktail-driven lifestyle. [...] It’s a very frivolous electro-pop record about the first playboy engineer. [Pitchfork Media]

This connection is obvious on a few tracks – Dream Cars, Raquel (about an alleged affair he had with actress Raquel Welch in the 1970s), I Lust U (about his affairs) and Belfast (about the city where he once had a car factory).

Neon Neon, at Summercase 2008

Having had a few listens of this album now, its a mixed bag – there are some great tracks, some okay tracks, and some really irritating tracks. Some of my favourites are the fast-paced I Told Her on Alderaan, catchy indie track Steel Your Girl and latest single, the smooth I Lust U. However, the album is let down by the annoying tracks – Raquel being the main offender. Add into this the fact that its blatantly obvious which tracks belong to who.

The final verdict? Overall, a very solid album, and it appeals to a variety of genres – it’s just a shame that there some weak tracks.

After the jump, the video for new single I Lust U.