There are 10 songs on their new 15-studio album, However. Two of them were previously published in single format: Loneliness and Dancing Star, dedicated to the Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (Neil Tennant himself loved to dance in his youth). And now working with the group was the eminent British producer James Ford, a wizard of synthesizer sound and the laconic, brilliant but effective presentation of melodies, for which he became famous in collaboration with Depeche Mode, Foals, Florence and the Machine and Gorillaz . project.
But for all the memorability of the sound and the nostalgia of the soft, lulling compositions that again drag you into the bliss and molasses of cotton candy, there are no hits on the album. Not at the level of It”sa Sin, nor Heart or Always on My Mind.
After all, cotton, which is usually sold in summer parks, is edible, attractive at first, but remains artificial and then quickly becomes boring.
The same goes for the album Sin However (“However” in Russian translation): you will probably like it from the first bars. Can they still do it like before?!
Yes, there are pleasant and cozy melodies on the album, and the disco rhythms are attractive and elastic. Well, the producer timely complements the tracks with voltage drops, synth lightning bolts and other creative studio monogram effects. But there are too many predictable things in However.
This album sounds like the work of a teacher: the level of skill is high, but now there are very few ideas and arrangements in which the emotions and counterpoints of modern life are concentrated. Much more – clichés accumulated over years of creativity and desire to please a wide variety of audiences. That’s probably why an orchestra even appears in the song The Secret of Happiness (that is, nothing less than “The Secret of Happiness”), which is now a trend among many stars.
In general, the title is good, but real happiness when listening to the album (or other strong emotions) does not appear. This also happens.
