The Leisure Society: Alone Aboard The Ark

If folky, literate and slightly pastoral tunesmithery is your bag, The Leisure Society could be right up your alley. Their third album, recorded at Ray Davies’ Konk Studios, sees the Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy-led collective creating a lush tapestry of orchestral pop tunes, most of which sound like they could have been recorded at any time in the last century.

It’s no surprise, when you consider the cinematic nature of his compositions, that Hemming was once in indie hopefuls She Talks To Angels, alongside director Shane Meadows and actor Paddy Considine. Hemming’s CV also includes plenty of soundtrack work (primarily for Meadows’ projects). However, it’s not all about mood and nuance, as two Ivor Novello nominations can attest, and his songwriting is as strong as ever on the ‘60s-influenced guitar pop of ‘Tearing The Arches Down’, the jaunty ‘Another Sunday Psalm’, the galloping ‘Everyone Understands’ and the magical melancholia of ‘We Go Together’. Meanwhile, the literate sweep of ‘The Sober Scent Of Paper’ vies with the gorgeous, old time ‘A Softer Voice Takes Longer Hearing’ for album highlight.
The arrangements veer from the 1920s’ jazz pop of ‘Life Is A Cabriolet’ to the surprising electro percussion on ‘Fight For Everyone’, a song inspired by last year’s Olympics. At its best, it’s like Neil Hannon jamming with Belle & Sebastian in a post-war music hall. A few slips into muzak territory (‘All I Have Seen’, ‘One Man And His Fug’, ‘Forever Shall We Wait’) aside, The Leisure Society are a gentle force to be reckoned with.