Album Review: The Last Shadow Puppets Everything You’ve Come to Expect

As the old adage goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Alex Turner and Miles Kane stick to their guns and have recruited exactly the same personnel for their second album as supergroup duo The Last Shadow Puppets.

Longstanding Arctic Monkeys knob twister and half of Simian Mobile Disco, James Ford, mans the production desk, while former Final Fantasy arranging genius Owen Pallett looks after the strings.

Zach Dawes arrives on bass having collaborated with the great Brian Wilson, and lends a bit more beef to TLSP’s latest collection of orchestral pop songs. Lead single ‘Bad Habits’ didn’t exactly augur brilliantly, rehashing the script from the duo’s debut album, The Age of Understatement. Thankfully, Everything You’ve Come to Expect is better than that tune suggested, mainly due to Turner’s assured songwriting touch. 

The first half is very solid, if not exactly spectacular, although the aforementioned ‘Bad Habits’ and the dispensible ‘Sweet Dreams, TN’ see the quality nosedive in the middle. Everything You’ve Come to Expect finishes on a flourish with ‘Dream Synopsis’, reminiscent of Turner’s moodier and more contemplative work with Arctic Monkeys. 

The Last Shadow Puppets remain an intriguing side project, but perhaps they need to look at freshening the approach next time around. 

Eamon Sweeney // Out April 1