After last year’s groundbreaking debut album ‘Shadow of a Wrecking Ball’, Le Cygne Noir has returned with a new EP. Last Day Of My Life’ was released on the 10th January via Cherry Red Records.
Here is our track by track review:
Last Day of My Life
The beauty of Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’ informs so much of this song. The pianos are achingly beautiful as he sings about desperation:
“I wake up to a holocaust / my dearest dreams have all been lost”
So much pain, so much beauty, all wrapped up into the gentle but power opening minutes.
That is, until, it morphs into a Bunnymen meets New Order dancefloor filler. Arm in arm, love oozing from its pores, this is an anthem of unification. Throw in the sublime nod to Kraftwerk, and, it has it all!
Deadly Night Shade
If Gruff Rhys fronted Depeche Mode in a period of heavy Burt Bacharach and Scott Walker influence, this would surely be the results.
The sumptuous 60s melodies, Acid Jazz organs and the gothic vocals all combine to create images of Italian pastel coloured mods with goth eyeliner.
Deny the vocal hooks and the ecstatic guitar solo at your peril.
Red Light
The recent energetic psyche of Erland & The Carnival and Weller’s ‘Saturn’s Pattern’ & ‘Sonik Kicks’ combine with the nerve damaging Hawkwind and the freakier side of The Creation and Pretty Things.
On paper it sounds great, right? However, such is the quality of the previous two tracks, you are left feeling something is awry. The pop cut through has gone from the special madness he has created.