Rating: 8.5 / Format: CD/LP / Label: Rough Trade
The ‘Golden Phone’/’Do Me Well’ seven-inch was great and the Filthy Friends mixtape was pretty cool, but few would’ve expected Micachu’s debut album to be this good. Perhaps crucially, someone who did was Matthew Herbert, who contacted the East London musician out of the blue and offered to produce her work. Herbert presumably saw a piece of himself in Mica – the legacy of his cut ‘n’ paste approach to music exists in every note of Jewellery; the rattling loops, the mimetic hoover-referencing, the genius ‘ding!’ on ‘Do Me Well’.
But the Shapes aren’t a doo-wop group and this is nowhere near a Spector job; the band’s talent and personality shine through every route Jewellery decides to go down, whether that’s adopting a Fiery Furnaces-style laissez faire approach to song structure, scratchy lo-fi aesthetics or skittish, crashing pop waves. The constants are great hooks, wicked turns of sound and a wonderful singer who warbles, mumbles and stutters her way through a miniature odyssey that’s over in half an hour and ends on ‘Do Me Well’, one of the best songs of the decade.
Or at least, did end on it before they changed the track-listing – this review had unfortunately already gone to print.
Tom Lea
Micachu and the Shapes myspace