catalogue

MUSIC ON HOLD

4EVER (BORN BAD)

MUSIC ON HOLD - 4EVER 161757
format:
1 LP
release:
08.12.2023
label:
BORN BAD
item ID:
161757
barcode:
3521381579093
Music On Hold's second album raises to its climax an altogether well-cultivated ambiguity between new ambitions and the waiting posture of a band which has never lived up to its name so well.

Produced in a cellar in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, supported by Ray Jane and "surrounded by a group of people who manage to concentrate on something for more than 15 minutes", "MOH4Ever" is one of the most personal things that Emile Cartron-Eldin delivers today, "from the salt-dough workshops in kindergarten".

Opening, "His Master Voice" transforms the tribute to a recently deceased loved one into a sad clown's dancing homily.

With no surprise follows "Wander" and roaming in a Paris traveled up and down at least ten thousand times already.

"Music On Hold 4 Ever" then releases the title of this album in a cry accompanied by an invitation to "unplug" his singer.

We hear a bit of the group's very first single, "Bread", taken through the prism of Beck's "Up all night".

"Citadel", 6'30" end of side A, loudly proclaims as a chain-breaking the nostalgia of truant school and a desire not to die (at least not like Darby Crash).

Mixed in - like this entire album - are the versatile ingenuity of LCD Soundsystem and Gorillaz with Italo-disco arrangements from Roberto Zanetti (aka Savage).

With "Over", "Home", "Taming a Tiger" and "Last Laugh", side B prolongs the tightrope walker's delirium by summoning in no specific order, memories in Vienna, resumption of excessive consumption, the fact that "the director of the US Federal Reserve is a real fake-ass" and the cynical humo(u)rous swings of a guy overwhelmed by them in an everlasting after-party.

From the first LP, "30 Minutes Of..." and its already delayed release, its chopped tour, "Music On Hold 4 Ever" digs a refined pop, no longer as "solar" as some could have described it when everything seemed to be going quickly.

Retaining a semblance of immediacy, the 8 pieces of this second album open up new perspectives with their elegant sophistication, in a quite French and truly original touch of DIY and experimentation that the group can pride themselves on.

" I'm twenty-nine, and i don't wanna die ".
 
  • Tracklisting
  • 1.1. HIS MASTER'S VOICE
  • 1.2. WANDER
  • 1.3. MUSIC ON HOLD FOR EVER
  • 1.4. CITADEL
  • 1.5. OVER
  • 1.6. HOME
  • 1.7. TAMING A TIGER
  • 1.8. LAST LAUGH