Under The Tangerine Tree has been kind enough to publish a review of our new album Gentlemen Thieves. The review is in Italian but our Penguin Translate-O-Bot has rendered it into English for you. Either UTTT has been very flattering, or our Bot is biased.
‘Emperor Penguin are back, and it's obviously good news. "Sunday Carvery" was a revelation for those of us who already knew them thanks to the astounding "Corporation Pop," which we had discussed in these pages at the time, but we had never really delved into their discography, now at seven albums over fourteen years of career. That album overflowed with very seventies theatrical effervescence - but also a bit of mid-eighties XTC - with all the attendant invention and trickery, while "Gentlemen Thieves," a brand-new album, shifts the temporal horizon a decade back. However, it remains difficult to confine Emperor Penguin within a precisely demarcated territory, and though their base can be said to more or less fly the UK beat flag, within a very British construct, influences pop up from everywhere and radiate towards the most unpredictable destinations. "Gentlemen Thieves" is a clever piece of work that tells stories of larceny and cites WB Yeats, but it's not a concept album. Ironic Victoriania pervades the lyrical and instrumental context, with the usual guiding spirits Costello and XTC still firmly in the pantheon.
‘"That's The Worst It Could Happen," with its bizarre echoes, reverb, and bursts of fuzz, contains avant la lettre power pop references that flirt with Beatlemania, while "Silver Apples," with its literary references, and "Three More Years," placed at the end of the album, define the diversity of sounds with daring but successful synth digressions in a pleasantly proto-progressive context.
‘This is a diversity that "Town Called Gone" and "Driving Blind" do not hesitate to emphasize: the former built on an angular design from which a great chorus springs according to foundations made very successful by Guided By Voices; the latter, characterised by a luxurious chorus, even borders on the territory of 70s glam rock. The audacious "Sonnez Les Matines," starts with a reggae-like twist and is carried by compulsive bass towards a sort of American eastern dance mixed with a Madchester sound, and the amazing "Pipistrelle" is a gem that evokes the idol (Andy) Partridge, adorned with a clever toy piano.
‘Classic texts of British rock history are revisited in the tracks titled "The Persuaders," located in the narrow gap between Rubber Soul and Revolver, and "You And Me," which seems like an outtake from Sgt. Pepper's with its horn-based arrangements.
‘An exceptional album, yes, but the best episodes have not yet been mentioned: one of them emanates from the tormented guitars and beefy drums of "Ladybird," great power pop for refined palates; the other two from the usual participation of Lisa Mychols, who impressively duets with the voice of an impersonation of Evan Dando covering Costello in "I Wouldn't Put It Like That," vaguely jangle-inspired, and then evokes the goddess Kirsty MacColl in the slightly psychedelic "You Are My Atmosphere."
‘The manifest admiration for classic British music never turns into a carbon copy of something else. The very evident compositional and writing abilities and the usual courage in taking the unexpected tangent make "Gentlemen Thieves" another great album by Emperor Penguin, which we dare to predict will rank very high in several year-end charts when the time comes.’
THANK YOU, Tangerine Tree!