The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of Understatement (Domino) ****
4:08pm Friday 25th April 2008
LOST in France with Arcade Fire's string arranger and Arctics' producer James Ford, chief Monkey Alex Turner and his mate Miles Kane of The Rascals wrapped their loving arms round a bunch of old Scott Walker and Burt Bacharach records and found an instant outlet for their heightened sense of melody.
This is the kind of old-fashioned, grandiose torch pop that has attracted such disparate talents as Elvis Costello and Marc Almond down the years.
Lyrically, Turner and Kane have concocted some killer couplets; while their scratchy guitars are offset by banks of lush strings that somehow ensure this avoids the pitfalls of slavish copyism.
Perfect for those missing the Monkeys' less muscular sides like the cover of Baby I'm Yours.