The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatment

The Age of the Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets

By Chris Peken

Were it not for the constant PR billing of this album as the collaboration between The Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and The Rascals’ Miles Kane, then The Last Shadow Puppets might well be being hailed as something special in their own right. Ditching the expectation that their respective bands might bring to this project, Turner and Kane have turned back the clock with an album of lush, sweeping orchestral arrangements and vocals dripping in authentic sixties-style reverb – nowhere more evident than in the building tympani and string drama of the opening title track. There is no understatement to be found here. Turner and Kane’s blended harmonies and shared vocals meld remarkably well as they explore the joys of a lavish sound that is part Scott Walker, part The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. There are brief moments when the Age of Aquarius is forgotten as the spite of the new millennium rears its ugly head in the manic I Don’t Like You Anymore, but immediately they return to the lush orchestral drama and sixties Technicolour of In My Room. Take a trip in the Tardis and visit with The Last Shadow Puppets.

*** 1/2