Growing pains

Metronomy – Small World

In Metronomy‘s latest album, ‘Small World’, singer Joe Mount writes teenage pop for ageing millennials.

It has been 16 years since Mount’s vehicle Metronomy first burst onto the scene in 2006. Since then he has found critical and popular success with a series of off-beat pop albums.

However, like most other music artists, Mount (pictured) has spent much of the pandemic at home – unable to tour.

Instead of writing songs on the road he has been forced to create this album’s material while homeschooling his kids and sitting in his back garden.

Aware of his status as an ageing incumbent, Mount has joked before that he will stop performing when he no longer sees young people at the front of his gigs.

Indeed, Metronomy’s latest album poses the question: How can a dad in his late 30s write songs about teenage heartbreak and angst? And answers it with a hefty dose of nostalgia and pared-back guitar.

In ‘Hold Me Tonight’ Mount, who has been with his girlfriend for 10 years, sings of unrequited young love.

While mournful ballad “life and death”

channels the morose musings of a would-be Young Werther.

Mount has said that he finds platitudes fascinating, and on “It’s so good to be back” he uses a line of typical post lockdown small talk to create a summer anthem.

With its funky beat and chorus of “It’s just something in the air oh yeah. It feels so good to be back”, it is the album’s closest thing to a readymade hit.

Although ‘Small World’ will struggle to appeal to younger listeners, older fans are sure find it a delight.