CATE LE BON

MUG MUSEUM (Turnstile)

16/20

Cate Le Bon has gone Cali. It seems the sun-licked streets are having quite an effect on these songs, written in little South Wales but recorded in super-sized LA. Mug Museum opens with the sunshine pop of I Can’t Help You, an effervescent song that flicks the switch inside your head like a good cup of coffee. Embracing the wry smile as rays of light touch the skin, it’s a fine opening track and raises the bar on anything she’s written before. I Think I Knew sees her in conversation with Mike Hadreas, otherwise known as Perfume Genius, like an underground version of Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers. It’s a melancholy unearthing of a revelatory pairing. Cate’s opinions on herself, her gender and her family are felt throughout, even though she is in mid-discovery, re-evaluating her role within the life play. Lines like “Lay still on the ground, exhale the sound of symphonies” give this music a timeless, moving context. The closing title track sees Cate at a lonely piano, the creaks of the stool she sits on becoming part of the track. Drenched into the sunlight of Los Angeles, these songs have been illuminated beyond their darker beginnings into shining jewels, and will surely propel Cate into a different musical league.

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Words: Philip James Allen