I’ve been a casual fan of The Real Tuesday Weld for quite a few years now, but never got super into them. Their new record The London Book of the Dead isn’t quite going to change that, but it’s certainly one of the more interesting, if not one of my favorite albums of the year.
It’s the kind of record that sounds like it ought to be broadcast on crackly speakers – or should be the soundtrack to some black and white art nouveau film, full of rich temptations and hidden undertones. Is it jazz-infused electro-pop? Is it a musty ballad transcribed from a scratched 78 found buried in some box in your parents’ attic? Is it nu-klezmer? Is it Stephin Merrit in drag? Or is Stephin Merrit always already in drag, so this is him passing as straight?
The only way to find out for yourself is to check out a few tracks. “Last Words” is the most immediately accessible (and a beautiful pop tune in its own right), but you’d be missing out on most of the magic if you didn’t also try the darkly despondent “Dorothy Parker Blue” or the genre-obliteration that is “The Decline and Fall of the Clerkenwell Kid.”
Last Words – The Real Tuesday Weld
Dorothy Parker Blue – The Real Tuesday Weld