Cover Feature Alt-J: “We’re not trying to subvert anything”

Picture this scene. There’s a slushy romantic film on the telly, probably involving montages of reunited couples jumping into each other’s arms in the airport, along with Colin Firth taking up a new role as a stuttering, awkward Englishman in love. He’s probably eating blue soup, omelette and marmalade with an American woman who has inexplicably decided to holiday alone over Christmas in a cottage in the Home Counties, and it’s the clichéd scene at the very end where he has put his heart on the line. Taking her by the hand, shaking, he looks into her eyes and says: “I’m gonna bed into you like a cat beds into a bean bag. Turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet.” The credits roll. Everybody in the cinema cries.

Only a band like Alt-J could direct a romantic comedy this strange, soundtracked by spliced five-way vocal duets, wonky, slightly sordid declarations of love, a Miley Cyrus sample and a gaudy, twanging Southern Rock anthem called ‘Left Hand Free’ for good measure. There are slow, plaintive, weirdly lust-filled laments, and even a lyrical nod to KRS-One’s ‘Sound Of Da Police’. Not only have Alt-J ignored any outside pressure to stick to a template; they’ve gone a step further, and totally defied it.