Review

Formerly a one-man project but now a fully-fledged band, Matador’s new electro hopes release their debut, Love Comes Close. ‘Cebe And Me’ ushers in the album in stark fashion, pitch-black synth throbs washing over a distant, spoken-word vocal. The following title track sets out their dark electro-pop stall, sighing keys underpinning some incongruously light guitar and Wesley Eisold’s baroque delivery. Unfortunately, the high standard of this opening pair proves elusive, with the remainder of the album patchy. For every stunner like ‘Youth And Lust’, a masterpiece in unresolved tension with lush synth beds and metronomic beat, there’s a missed opportunity such as ‘The Laurels Of Erotomania’, where a great pop melody is sabotaged by Eisold’s agonised moan. Perhaps the singer’s previous stints in various hardcore bands explains his apparent fear of Cold Cave’s accessible side, but there’s a genuinely great pop record straining to burst out from its doomy shackles here if only he’d let it. As it is, Love Comes Close is brief, punchy and promising, but ultimately frustrating. Lee Gorman

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DOWNLOAD: ‘LOVE COMES CLOSE’, ‘LIFE MAGAZINE’, ‘YOUTH AND LUST’
FOR FANS OF: EDITORS, FRYARS, NEW ORDER.

Posted on: 27th January 2010

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