There is a gentle deceptiveness to electro-pop band Au Revoir Simone. They are able to produce ethereal and dreamy sounds superbly, and on their new album, Move in Spectrums, there is a new strength behind their delivery. The nuances between soft and hard, pop and art help move the band’s deft song writing into an area where their delivery is just as impressive.
The album’s opening track, ‘More Than’, is built upon droning synth sounds with sweet vocals and accented drums providing the detail. The song’s structure offers pop hooks and single vocal lines to catch the attention, but never gives away the ending. This suspenseful writing technique is employed on several songs, but just as importantly, listeners are given relief with full pumping choruses like on ‘Crazy’and ‘Somebody Who’.
The trio of keyboard bashers from Brooklyn, New York have honed some of the more contemplative moments from the likes of La Roux on songs like ‘We Both Know’. These tense moments dominate the tail end of the album and with limited success. Proving their prowess at punchy pop, it seems a shame this album falls away from the soul it began with.
