The Last Shadow Puppets have resurfaced at the back-end of 2016, swiftly following up their long-awaited sophomore effort with The Dream Synopsis EP. This six-track EP was recorded live in one day at the Future-Past Studios in New York. It is essentially a collection of covers they have performed whilst out on tour, along with a revision of ‘The Dream Synopsis’ and a supposed reworking of ‘Aviation’.
The question rises as to what the purpose of this EP is? The tracks chosen include covers by the likes of the late Leonard Cohen and Mark E Smith of The Fall – two of popular music’s most esteemed cult figureheads. Does the narcissistic mirror of Mr Turner and his sidekick, Kane, now stretch to the point where they attempt to see themselves within some of music’s supposedly ‘coolest’ figures? Perhaps. Do they do the covers justice? Well, they appear to painfully stumble over some finish line, but it’s certainly not all smooth sailing.
‘Aviation’ opens the EP and after a brief statement of “we are rolling” that unashamedly enforces the point that this is a live recording, you are thrust into the juttering groove of ‘Aviation’, taken from 2016’s Everything You’ve Come to Expect. There is no denying the greatness of the song. It is beautifully reckless, it moves at such a buoyant pace, cautiously pushing tempos harder. There is so much going on within its constant movement but this version changes virtually nothing. If you expected a re-working, don’t set your expectations too high. It is largely a carbon copy, just recorded live – almost as if just to prove to you that yes, they can perform it live as well.
Throwing myself back to my earlier point – Mr Turner also likes to play Jacques Dutronc. Yes, him, the chap who was the figure of 60s rock’n’roll for some, also married to Françoise Hardy. The cover of Dutronc’s ‘Les Cactus’ however does the original some justice. Regardless of how Turner may tastelessly throw himself around cultural movements and trace himself upon the outlines of other artists, the song itself is marvellous. The energy and aggression that the duo put into the song means it never suffers from lethargy, even if it purely survives on the basis of arrogance.
Kane’s take on The Fall’s ‘Totally Wired’ leaves a little more to be desired though. His yelps of “I’m totally wired” are overly enthusiastic. He proves that the only band that can truly play songs by The Fall, are The Fall. Mark E Smith carries too much vigour and swagger within his vocal delivery and the music is too sparse and industrial to allow anybody else to have a go. The Last Shadow Puppets dress it up with reverberations putting what may be deemed a psychedelic edge on it – it fails to bring much to the table though.
Four tracks in and we hit their take on Glaxo Babies’ ‘This Is Your Life’, arguably one of the better points to the EP. It carries originality in it, using the Bristol group’s song as an outline rather replicating it with Northern snarl. Perhaps also it’s because they haven’t picked an obvious artist to cover. Kane screams and stammers behind walls of fuzz and rapid rhythm sections, taking the desolate 80s post-punk song and filling it with swirls of noise. Hold fire though, there’s trouble on track five.
The video to accompany The Last Shadow Puppet’s version of ‘Is This What You Wanted’ acted as the wellington boots for Alex Turner to wade into a sea of crude egotism, the song itself is nothing but a shambles too. It offers nothing new musically and Turner seems to woefully misunderstand the song, contradicting Cohen’s obvious satirical self-deprecation by trying to impersonate him to extend his own ego. A kick in the teeth for Cohen and surely a kick in the teeth for any fan of the man’s work. If the recorded version irritates you, avoid the lurid shadows and attempt at Lou Reed dress-ups on YouTube.
As you stumble into the re-working of ‘The Dream Synopsis’ at the end, you finally hit the only real purpose to the EP. It’s beautifully done, despite the over exaggerations in the vocals – unfortunately by this point though, you feel slightly exhausted by the ego-maniacs that ran loose throughout the first five tracks. When stripped back from the busy nature of the LP version, the lyrics feel a lot more open and vivid. This, combined with the croons of brass sections and touching strings bring a more mature sound to the duo. Unfortunately the covers on the EP are totally unnecessary and would struggle to cut it as b-sides – the closing track would have been worthy of that accolade but it is horribly cast into the sea with weights attached way before its time of hearing comes.
Tom Churchill
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