Cate Le Bon - Reward
Sequestered in the Cumbrian mountainside, surrounded by nothing but the rural environs of Lake District and the wood furniture she started to make, the first glimmers of Cate Le Bon’s fifth studio album “Reward” started to take root. And to listen to the record is to understand exactly how a year living in solitude, “playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night” translates into music, for while “Reward” is every bit as stylistically varied, surrealistically inclined and tactile as those in the enduring outsider’s back catalogue, it is also the most intensely introspective and profoundly personal to date.
Although eventually recorded across America and the UK, and roping in a rollcall of trusted and loved musicians (including Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint and H.Hawkline and Josh Klinghoffer), “Reward” miraculously maintains its sense of privacy and intimacy throughout. A lot of it, of course, stems directly from Le Bon herself and the inimitable way in which she works, all of which preserves a signature sound despite relatively drastic changes in approach.
This skilful traversing of apparent contradictions continues to make itself known on Reward, where, from the lamenting bones of ‘Home to You’ springs ‘Mother’s Mother's Magazines’, a song derived from “being around a lot of really fed up women”. Glimmers of the biting, tongue-in-cheek and often surrealist imagery found scattered throughout Le Bon’s previous works rear their heads once more on ‘Sad Nudes’ (Pick up the phone / Take the call from your mother / She really wants you to answer) and the pulsating, cascading ‘Magnificent Gestures’ (I was born with no lips / Drip drip drips). Though things take a turn for the pessimistic on third single ‘The Light’, (Mother I feel the crowd on the turn / Took out the windows / Moved the stairs / And I don’t see the comedy / Holding the door to my own tragedy / Take blame for the hurt but the hurt belongs to me), it is not without an underlying sense of humour, as Le Bon cynically ponders Where would he go for fun in this town? And after all, the light that eventually seeks her out offers the lonely artist salvation.
This skilful traversing of apparent contradictions continues to make itself known on Reward, where, from the lamenting bones of ‘Home to You’ springs ‘Mother’s Mother's Magazines’, a song derived from “being around a lot of really fed up women”. Glimmers of the biting, tongue-in-cheek and often surrealist imagery found scattered throughout Le Bon’s previous works rear their heads once more on ‘Sad Nudes’ (Pick up the phone / Take the call from your mother / She really wants you to answer) and the pulsating, cascading ‘Magnificent Gestures’ (I was born with no lips / Drip drip drips). Though things take a turn for the pessimistic on third single ‘The Light’, (Mother I feel the crowd on the turn / Took out the windows / Moved the stairs / And I don’t see the comedy / Holding the door to my own tragedy / Take blame for the hurt but the hurt belongs to me), it is not without an underlying sense of humour, as Le Bon cynically ponders Where would he go for fun in this town? And after all, the light that eventually seeks her out offers the lonely artist salvation.
The multifaceted nature of Le Bon’s art — its ability to take on multiple meanings and hold motivations which are not immediately obvious — is evident right down to the album’s very name – as opposed to being something joyful and complacent, the album signals a scrambling to hold onto meaning; it is a warning against lazy comparisons and face values. It is a sentiment nicely summed up by the furniture-making musician as she advises: “Always keep your hand behind the chisel.”
There will be a limited version of “Reward” available on the Mexican Summer website, a red vinyl with a poster and MP3 download, head here to pre-order.
31-May-2019 - Best Kept Secret Festival, Hilvarenbeek NL
For more information: www.v2benelux.com
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