The Underground of Happiness

This is a beguiling album of emotional songs from the Berliner, featuring lyrics with a broad romantic (in the Keats and Shelley sense – in fact the album title is apparently a nod to a Shelley poem from 1812, how cool) sweep. Let the bed sheet soak up my tears And watch the only way out disappear Don’t tell me why Kiss me goodbye But while the words wonder and brood in melancholy, almost metaphysical fashion, the surging, fizzing soundtrack reaches for the sky. The stall is set out from the beginning, in the shape of the celestial choir and circling, Reichian synths of opener Sweet unrest . You’ll probably already have heard the sublime single Song of Los , which manages to combine a semi-operatic vocal with a twitchy two-step (it reminds me of CocoRosie in a way), to make a tune of soaring emotional power. That title refers to the genesis of the album during a break from touring in Mexico in 2010, and there is a kind of sun-bleached, morning-after quality to a lot of the mu...