Composer Arthur Jeffes perpetuates the orchestral pop musical memory of his late father Simon, co-founder of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra which, in the 1980s, almost heralded today’s “neoclassical” fashion. This fifth album of the project is not lacking in charm… nor in excess of string arrangements that make the tearful moments too predictable (No One Really Leaves, among others). Fortunately, flashes of fantasy defuse the solemn side of the work, like the dashing Afro-Cuban rhythm ofIn Re Budd (a tribute to Harold), the jovial cadence of galahad or the astonishing nod to English/Irish folklore in Goldfinch. The neat orchestrations, the pretty themes, the occasional (and successful) emulation of rhythms house/downtempo and the creative use of the sounds of the balafon, the cuatro or even the dulcitone give a lot of relief to these compositions, some of which we will want to listen to over and over again, Shelter at the beginning of the album, Find Your Feet on the end.
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