ADEM
Love & Other Planets
Domino
· Tunes left ringing in one’s ears.
Adem’s debut album Homesongs was a left-field surprise, a near-perfect slice of homebound acoustic shuffling. A near-total turn away from the electronic-infused math rock instrumentals of his previous band, Fridge (Kieran Hebden of FourTet one of his bandmates), Adem’s new persona was a folky lo-fi bedroom poet, a scruffy sentimentalist capable of breaking one’s heart with a gruff sigh.
Love & Other Planets continues further down the same road, albeit with less immediate results. To insist Adem’s music is the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day spent at home, calling in sick to work and ignoring one’s chores, is more than just an accurate description – it’s also a necessary state of listening. Far more subtle than Homesongs, Love & Other Planets is the type of album that takes some work on the part of the listener. There’s the ambling beat of "Launch Yourself" and "Something’s Going to Come," while "You and Moon" folds over itself like a warm winter blanket. There’s nothing quite so reassuring and romantic as Homesongs’ finale "There Will Always Be" (still Adem’s finest moment), but Love & Other Planets’ closer "Human Beings Gather Round" is the type of true-hearted hymnal few are capable of pulling off quite so well.
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