The video for "The Age of the Understatement" is set in Russia, and compared to the Arctics' insider-ish dispatches about Life Among the Chavs or Life As the Biggest New Band Since Oasis, these songs are Tolstoy in their bird's-eye omniscience. Though less immediately noticeable than the majestic production, the change in the scale of Turner's songwriting is ultimately more profound. So obviously the biggest difference between the Last Shadow Puppets and Turner's main gig is in the lyrics. Pallett's contributions range from the jittery waltz fanfares of "Calm Like You" and whip-cracking horse race of "Separate and Ever Deadly" to the downy romance of "The Meeting Place", which could've fit on an album by the Arctics' fellow Sheffield son Richard Hawley. "About as subtle as an earthquake, I know," Turner concedes on "My Mistakes Were Made for You", which settles into a regal symphonic-funk groove befitting David Axelrod (the producer for Cannonball Adderley and the Electric Prunes, not the adviser to Barack Obama). Or Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich's "The Legend of Xanadu". The title track and first single opens the record at a gallop, stretching the baroque-pop of early Scott Walker- the Jacques Brel-translating, Ingmar Bergman-feting crooner, not the avant-gardist from Tilt and The Drift- to the dramatic mariachi brass of Love's Forever Changes, or one of Morricone's Sergio Leone scores. As Turner's granddad might say, "You've overdoon it." Again.įord may be better known for his work in unfortunately nicknamed subgenres like blog house and nu-rave, but on The Age of the Understatement, he oversees a remarkably vivid 1960s symphonic-pop pastiche. Together, they've helped create Turner's most impressive album-length statement yet, one that strives, musically and lyrically, for the epic grandeur of an era before GarageBand or MySpace, and avoids lapsing into pretentiousness by dint of its own headlong enthusiasm. Simian Mobile Disco half James Ford, who produced Favourite Worst Nightmare and the Klaxons' debut album, produces again and serves double-duty on drums. Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, who has arranged strings for the Arcade Fire, does so here with the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra. Kane, formerly of 1960s-tinged English rockers the Little Flames and now with a new group dubbed the Rascals, is actually Turner's least well-known collaborator on the Last Shadow Puppets' full-length debut. The Bowie song, which the Last Shadow Puppets have since covered as a B-side, could easily have been their aesthetic template. The other half of the duo, Miles Kane, played guitar on "505". In retrospect, that's where Turner's latest project, the Last Shadow Puppets, begins.
Old ones: Favourite Worst Nightmare finale "505" sampled Ennio Morricone, and in an interview at the time with The Onion's A/V Club, Turner touted everything from doo-wop and girl groups to late-1960s David Bowie rarity "In the Heat of the Morning". In between singing, playing guitar, and writing songs for one of the UK's biggest bands, Turner listened to some records.