Little Cub, Still Life - album review: Stark truths and a beat you can dance to
South-London trio cast a cynical eye over the flaws in human nature on their debut LP
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Individual songs on Little Cub’s debut album Still Life stand very solidly on their own - but then you might have guessed that from the album title - each song is a painting of one particular scene, a person, a memory.
Merging deft production with stark, diary-entry songwriting on opener 'Too Much Love' (for dancing in low light with strangers) the south London electronic trio find a balance between melancholic subtext and the thrill of a beat you can sway to.
Dominic Gore’s cool, almost-deadpan vocal delivery glides over warm, ambient landscapes crafted by bandmates Duncan Tootill and Ady Acolatse.
In so many of these songs, the lyrics cast a cynical, withering glance at human flaws in a similar vein to Gore’s literary heroes, but also question whether giving into them is always such a bad thing - Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray certainly wouldn't think so.
Gore drops to a low murmur on ’Mulberry’ that seems deeply intimate as he sings of "deep grooves that could hide all manner of things", before the song breaks out of its chrysalis with a shimmering funk riff. 'Death of a Football Manager’ serves as a narrative for the last few days of Gary Speed, with a swaying rhythm from an insistent beat that plays out over a mournful guitar hook.
An even more direct approach is heard on ‘Hypnotise’, which takes aim at the ugly truth of fake news, fat cats and social apathy with the same visceral contempt heard from Dave Gahan on Depeche Mode’s ‘Where’s the Revolution?’.
‘Snow’, the penultimate track on the record, has a divine slow-build and the sort of quiet, reflective sadness of buried memories brought floating to the surface; its sombre bass treads a steady path through those wintry streets Gore sings of.
And finally to ‘Television’, where that sprawling, epic feel recalls New Order’s ‘Elegia’. Tension underlining the entire album reaches its climax - the song breaks so abruptly that you're left catching your breath... but with a very complete picture of who this band is and what they’re trying to tell you.
Still Life - the debut album from Little Cub - is out on 28 April via Domino Records. They perform a headline show at The Lexington in London on 9 May
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