Hall of Fame Looking back on Metronomy’s ‘Nights Out’

Nearly ten years on from its release, and with Joe Mount trying to recapture its magic on new album ‘Summer ‘08’, we revisit the youthful exuberance and charm of Metronomy’s second album.

Words: Will Richards
24th July 2017

There was something about the summer of 2008. So much so, in fact, that Metronomy’s Joe Mount tried to take himself back to those heady days with his his latest album, named in thrall to that giddy, late-noughties season. In ‘08 itself, Joe released his second album under the moniker, the breakthrough ‘Nights Out’, an album that brought Metronomy to the attention of many more people, and started the band’s journey to becoming one of the country’s very best electronic pop outfits.

Following promising but muted debut ‘Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)’, ‘Nights Out’ flung Joe into the indie discos he’d soundtrack for the next decade, turning his studio project into a band that became festival favourites almost immediately.

Created around the idea of a heavy weekend on the English Riviera of his South West birthplace, ‘Nights Out’ chronicles the ups and downs, twists and turns of tumultuous benders with huge slabs of hooks thrown in for good measure.

"'Nights Out' has become an album that Joe Mount is still striving to emulate nearly a decade on."

From the instantly addictive ‘Radio Ladio’, in which he probes to find out the name of a girl who’s taken his breath away, to warning against a ‘Heartbreaker’ in the album’s centrepiece and song of the same name, ‘Nights Out’ is a second album that Joe Mount didn’t find at all difficult; it’s instead become one that he’s still striving to emulate nearly a decade on.

Metronomy’s greatest skill has always been their ability to craft songs that fit equally as comfortably on packed, sweaty dancefloors and bedrooms on evenings of introspection. The youthful, almost naive romanticism of ‘A Thing For Me’ sees Metronomy at their most captivating. When they revisit such sultry subject matter on ‘Summer ‘08’, it’s done with a little less subtlety - “I love sex and I love dancing,” he croons on ‘Old Skool’.

As well as shining on its own, ‘Nights Out’ paved the way for Metronomy’s third album ‘The English Riviera’, one which set dancefloors alight even more. Without ‘Nights Out’ introducing the idea of Metronomy as a fully-formed band, over the studio project that birthed ‘Pip Paine’, Metronomy wouldn’t nearly be the band we’re blessed with today. It’s a joy to look back upon, and enough to make us want to pack the car full of cider and breeze down to Devon for a weekend of regret.

For all the rest of DIY’s Hall of Fame coverage, head here.

Taken from the July 2017 issue. Subscribe below.

Tags: Metronomy, Hall Of Fame, Features

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<strong>Metronomy - The English Riviera (Instrumentals)</strong> (Vinyl LP - black)

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