Allhallowtide

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More than four decades after the founding of The Monochrome Set, the reunited band—still led by frontman Bid—have evolved from theatrical New Wave art punk (forming from the same group that also launched Adam and and the Ants) to something slightly more mellow but just as provocative. The hallmarks that influenced bands like The Smiths and Franz Ferdinand are still firmly in place on their 16th album. The title track is slightly twee, slightly goth and more than a little baroque, Bid's voice hamming it up to just this side of Bryan Ferry theatrics. "I can see your silhouettes approaching in the rain/ Your head spread like a fishing net with promises of pain," he croons on "My Deep Shoreline." The song bounces back and forth from brightness to shadow, original bassist Andy Warren's mischievous line bubbling under while female harmonies play as rich and redolent as a cheesy '70s soft-rock track. "Box of Sorrows" practically waltzes in, its piano flourishes stalked by shadowy bass and backing vocals like a moaning witches' coven. Bid, meanwhile, can always out-doom anyone (including, yes, Morrissey). "Slide into the furnace from a helter-skelter ghetto/ by the time you reach the bottom your face will be forgotten," he sings. "But love will spring you into heaven." And then there's the oppression of "Really in the Wrong Town": If you to live, live, live/ You're in the wrong town ... You can have a bike that you can't ride/ You won't even get to go outside ... There is no sun/ there is no sky/ There is no crescent moon"—all of it cheekily set again almost joyous instrumentation. The Franz Ferdinand-like "I, Servant" rides a hard-charging rhythm while Bid's voice stays calm in the midst of chaos. "Moon Garden" is practically chamber pop. "Ballad of the Flaming Man" nods at Western soundtracks but adds in a wheezing organ, and bubbly "Hello, Save Me" channels a bit of '60s camp horror. The busy "In a Chapel of a Personal Design" features an angelic female choir intoning "Be good, be true." Lest you wonder if it's ironic or not, Bid sings on "Resplendent in a Darkness"—so singer-songwriter moody, it sounds like a 1970s "Movie of the Week"—"Is this a movie that I'm starring in?/ Is it a comedy?/ It doesn't seem to me to be." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz