The Clientele
Bonfires on the Heath
(Merge)

If there were ever a band that you could say was so autumnal, so crepuscular, it would have to be the Clientele. Few other acts so thoroughly evoke the feelings of dusk, rain and fall (they even have a track called "Harvest Time"). The British band's newest, Bonfires on the Heath, could be a moody soundtrack to a Thomas Hardy novel. Singer/guitarist Alasdair MacLean plays and sings with an understated jazzy style, often drawing comparisons to a poetry-besotted version of the Zombies. The vague hippie-disco jangle of "I Wonder Who We Are" brings to mind mid-'70s Grateful Dead but with a Bryan Ferry/Spandau Ballet suaveness, which may constitute the biggest departure for the band. They're not big on whiplash style changes. Basically if you've heard one of their sleepy — as in cough-syrup sleepy — you've heard them all, and that's not a problem. Though on this one there's less pedal style and strings than on their last, and in their place is more brass, with trumpet lines occasionally ornamenting the languid melodies. "Never No One Else" is an almost perfect romantic song. Countless lovers (and sleepers) will be lured to bed by the sound of the hypnotic refrain "I can only see you."