Metronomy did with Coldplay in 2012) while leaving an inspiration of flesh and bone behind; about affection foundering on the time zone differential. Love Letters is one of those records – born, paradoxically, of a musician's wildest dreams – one that takes the enforced distances of musical success and uses them as a backdrop for all sorts of misadventures of the heart. "Tube of toothpaste/ Facial cleanser/ Bar of soap and moisturiser," runs the contents of one soap bag, but this is no road record, full of grousing hotel blues – it's about longing, and ill communications. Call Me, implores one song, weighing up a relationship with analogue burbles. The whole album opens with an urgent plea: "I've gotta beam my message to ya/Straight from the satellite/Cos, girl, we're meant to be together/And back out there on the Riviera/It gets so cold at night".
ncé