Coeur are a Glasgow based electronic three-piece, their retro influences are more obvious than the likes of Prides and CHVRCHES, drawing on the nocturnal self-doubt of Joy Division and, on opening track ‘Make it Up To Yourself’, watery Depeche Mode synths.
They don’t quite have the acidic squelch of New Order or the chilling grandeur of Kraftwerk, preferring to glower from the shadows, but ‘Spook’, with its chant of “no black, no, black, no black lines to follow”, takes them into the propulsive realms of Interpol or The Twilight Sad.
Sadly the production rarely lends it real clout, leaving you wondering what Coeur could do given a proper recording budget, while ‘The Pain’ strives for emotion, but ends up shipwrecked on the coast marked ‘terrible lyrics for those who venture here’.
Fortunately the final two tracks abandon the pretence of soul bearing in favour of barrel-chested anthems.
Resurrecting the White Lies comparisons, ‘21st Century’ forges ahead on clicking drums and a surging metronomic guitar tick-tock that channels new millennial malaise more effectively than the groups relatively shallow lyrics.
Words: Max Sefton
