Pale Young Gentlemen Pale Young Gentlemen by: Tom Bradbury Mon:03-Sep-07 Label: Year: 2007 WB rating 65 out of 100

Pale Young Gentlemen have that art school/musical theatre sound that long predates rock and roll. Traditionally, this is the sort of music that gets on my nerves. I find it pompous and pretentious – but then that’s probably down to my own sense of inadequacy. Who knows? Yet in so far as this style goes, Pale Young Gentlemen is not half bad. In the midst of musical precision and theatrics there are a few good songs hidden away.

Vocalist Mike Reisenauer mixes vulnerability with over-the-top drama – something resembling a middle ground between Chris Martin and Rufus Wainwright. There is an abundance of that sort theatrical sound seeping into the indie world currently, which isn’t necessarily a good thing as many fail to pull it off. Reisenauer does it better than most though because he actually has a few interesting ideas to work with.

‘Up North’, which is probably the most gentle and poignant song of the album, follows the plight of a boy wishing to avoid war, and shows that Pale Young Gentlemen can be more than simply a theatrical group. An understated piano part blends with Reisenauer’s soft voice while gentle harmonies bathe it in melancholy. ‘Up North’ also indicates that the band has a good understanding of tension and release, and this is where their obvious musical instincts pay dividends. Other bands might be tempted to add in unnecessary choruses, but thankfully, that is not the way Pale Young Gentlemen have structured the song. Instead, the track ebbs and flows much like the fortune of the song’s subject.

‘As A War’ is another song where Pale Young Gentlemen move into more subtle territory. This is where the Coldplay comparisons come in, for it could have fit in quite well on Parachutes – or even better Parachutes gets Jazzed – The Cover Album. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare every modern piano ballad to Coldplay, but there is a distinct mournful element to Reisenauer voice, a quality which Chris Martin has cornered the market on.

The problem is that ‘Up North’ and ‘As a War’ are atypical of the rest of Pale Young Gentlemen. A lot of this album is the sort of music that Paul McCartney always wanted to play but that the rest of the Beatles wouldn’t have a bar of – jaunty numbers like ‘Clap Your Hands’ for girls with Cleopatra pretensions to dance to. Of these, ‘Saturday Night’ is a far more enjoyable example, playing more like a pub sing along than an art school ball dance.

Pale Young Gentlemen have the potential to be far more interesting than the genre they have voluntarily placed themselves in. On this album they have demonstrated an ability for arrangement and also for melody, which would be far better served outside the confines of this extremely limiting style for which they seem to be so enamoured.