Take Berlin come at us with an EP steeped in nostalgia yet which is, ultimately, entirely endearing. On a sonic level, things are kept very simple. Most tracks feature only finger-picked acoustic guitar and rhodes piano, with a few flashes of muted brass appearing here and there. The vocals are warm and heavily compressed, Yvonne Ambree dominates but Jesse Barnes leads on ‘Sebastian’ and the girl-boy harmonies throughout are liltingly complementary. The whole cycle of songs remains laid back, bringing to mind long lost images of an acoustic version of Serge Gainsborough and Jane Birkin and other post-hippy melancholy aural simplicities.
What makes Lionize worthy of repeated listening, however, is the quality of the songwriting. It is always direct and memorable, yet subtle side turns keep it from stock standard folkiness. The title track sees both vocals fill in the gaps in each other’s accusing sentences, the terseness of the encounter heightened by the world weariness of the delivery. Meanwhile, the background acoustic guitar arpeggios cycle around chords which rise and fall in a manner that would make Radiohead proud.
‘Stranger’ brings the sonics into the digital age. While the same style of arpeggiated guitar and gentle rhodes stabs underpin the track, muted orchestral loops are played out as well, their grainy provenance evoking the same era as the rest of the music but their subtly clipped and repeated melodies and drones turning them into ghosts rather than glossy embellishments, adding to the melancholic warmth.
Lionize is a slight release but this light-weight nature is one of its greatest charms. It’s not going to change the landscape of contemporary music, but it does have the ability to worm its way into your brain and have you love it. At least, I do.
Adrian Elmer
