The Present Lover cover

The Present Lover

Released

Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) thought the first Luomo album, Vocalcity, was a failure. It made you wonder how they measured success; that album still resonates as one of the truly great house albums of the ‘00s. On The Present Lover, Ripatti buffed the textures to an impossible shine. Everything here feels glitzy and glam, gone are the tentative glitch-scapes, replaced with an ‘80s pop heart: at times, it feels as manicured and stage-managed as albums by ABC and Scritti Politti. But it’s also treacherously seductive, a labyrinthine structure of ever-mutating desire, as though the singers, adrift on the oil-slicks of perfumed texture Ripatti designs here, are playing out a Groundhog Day loop of amorous confusion. A reworked “Tessio,” which also appears on Vocalcity, signals the differences – here, on Vocalcity, the song’s a woozy lament, but here, it’s all strip-lit fashion catwalks.

Jon Dale

Recommended by

Suggestions
Metro Area cover

Metro Area

Metro Area
Siluetes 61 cover

Siluetes 61

Siluetes 61
East of the Sun cover

East of the Sun

Andrew Chalk
Fabric 13 cover

Fabric 13

Michael Mayer
New Emptiness cover

New Emptiness

Richard Youngs
Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet cover

Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet

Kronos Quartet, Aki Takahashi
Curva Triangulus cover

Curva Triangulus

Catherine Lamb, Ensemble Proton Bern