Investigate second Metronomy's album Nights Out and you'll find a transitional but very cohesive set, one that bridges the gap between dazzling pop and scuffling bedroom electronics with surprising grace. It's a record that builds cautiously, from the insect hummings of Nights Out Intro, up up up through the wonky electro tickler The End of You Too, edging into the deadpan, nearly-sing-along of Radio Ladio and then WHAM: two of the best pop songs of the year, if not the decade.
The record's most endearingly silly moment, My Heart Rate Rapid creeps up on a taut carpet of pings, cocks its head, then bursts into a helium delirium of incomprehensible falsetto ebullience, fizzing into the ether like drunken fireworks. A few octaves are dropped for the equally wonderful Heartbreaker, a minimal slink based around a curiously compelling sample of a creaky door and Mount's half spoken, "I heard she broke your heart again / Well that girl's a heartbreaker". It's tiny, but steely and compact, distilling the sentiment of nigh-on all pop music into two lines and refusing to sound smug about it.