The Present Lover cover

The Present Lover

Released

Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) thought the first Luomo album, Vocalcity, was a failure. It made you wonder how they measured success; that album still resonates as one of the truly great house albums of the ‘00s. On The Present Lover, Ripatti buffed the textures to an impossible shine. Everything here feels glitzy and glam, gone are the tentative glitch-scapes, replaced with an ‘80s pop heart: at times, it feels as manicured and stage-managed as albums by ABC and Scritti Politti. But it’s also treacherously seductive, a labyrinthine structure of ever-mutating desire, as though the singers, adrift on the oil-slicks of perfumed texture Ripatti designs here, are playing out a Groundhog Day loop of amorous confusion. A reworked “Tessio,” which also appears on Vocalcity, signals the differences – here, on Vocalcity, the song’s a woozy lament, but here, it’s all strip-lit fashion catwalks.

Jon Dale

Recommended by

Suggestions
Unpatterns cover

Unpatterns

Simian Mobile Disco
The Feast of the Broken Heart cover

The Feast of the Broken Heart

Hercules & Love Affair
Blue Songs cover

Blue Songs

Hercules & Love Affair
Hercules & Love Affair cover

Hercules & Love Affair

Hercules & Love Affair
Ghosts On Water cover

Ghosts On Water

Ghosts on Water, Andrew Chalk, Naoko Suzuki, Daisuke Suzuki