The Neighbourhood – The Neighbourhood (2018) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

The Neighbourhood (sometimes rendered as “THE NBHD”) is an American rock band formed in Newbury Park, California in 2011. The band is composed of vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, bassist Mikey Margott, and drummer Brandon Alexander Fried. “The Neighbourhood” is the band’s third full-lenght studio release.

For a West Coast band, Los Angeles’ the Neighbourhood make a distinctly dark brand of pop that’s way more overcast than beachy. It’s a sound they’ve been exploring since 2013’s I Love You, and one they sink slowly into on their cloudy, synth-heavy third album, 2018’s The Neighbourhood. Produced with Lars Stalfors (Cold War Kids, HEALTH, Foster the People), the eponymous album is colored by dimly fluorescent keyboards a la ’80s Miami Vice composer Jan Hammer, and pulsing, club-induced claustrophobia that feels very Giorgio Moroder circa 1981. It’s easy to imagine the Neighbourhood stumbling out of a screening of Blade Runner 2049 and knowing exactly what they wanted to do here. In that sense, the album feels like both a continuation of past work and a fresh start. The opening “Flowers” is lighter and more sparkly than past songs, allowing lead singer Jesse Rutherford a chance to sing with even more intimacy and nuance. Even when the mood shifts to American Gigolo-level arch sensuality, as on “Scary Love” and the shadowy, Krautrock-infused “Softcore,” Rutherford retains his yearning, organically fractured loverman qualities. While chilly synth is the band’s preferred skin here, they also balance the digital haze with deft orchestrations and acoustic instruments, as on the languid “Sadderdaze.” Similarly, the minor-key R&B-ish ballad “Too Serious” juxtaposes softly rendered acoustic guitar, spacy keyboards, and strings with a diffuse hip-hop beat. It’s a gorgeously cinematic moment that impossibly combines Portishead’s noir electronica with Sade’s lyricism. When a band decides to go with an eponymously titled release several albums into an established career, it often works as a statement about reclaiming their identity, or making a new creative start. If that’s the case here, the Neighbourhood have done both with their own cool aplomb.

Tracklist:
01 – Flowers
02 – Scary Love
03 – Nervous
04 – Void
05 – Softcore
06 – Blue
07 – Sadderdaze
08 – Revenge
09 – You Get Me So High
10 – Reflections
11 – Too Serious
12 – Stuck with Me

Download:

mqs.link_TheNeighburhdTheNeighburhd2018Qbuz24441.rar

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