The Clientele “Strange Geometry” (Best of the Decade)
It’s difficult nailing down a “best” album by the Clientele because for the most part, they are all so consistently good. For my money though, Strange Geometry edges out the competition by a nose, if simply by virtue of having probably the best Clientele track ever written in “Since K Got Over Me.” Throw in “My Own Face Inside the Trees,” “E.M.P.T.Y.” and a host of others and you are in pretty substantial company. The album also marked a noticeable change in the band’s style by cleaning up the sound and adding a gorgeous company of strings. Yeah, it is still their signature dampened reverb through a dreamy, psychedelic fog, but now it’s being whispered directly into your ear instead of across time and space from 1967. And lest anyone utter the dread words “more accessible” about the shift in the sound, Alasdair MacLean’s muzzles the tunefulness with his pitch dark lyrical poetry. He’s never sounded more evocative (or pessimistic for that matter). It’s one of the Clientele’s saddest records, but also probably their most brilliantly executed.