CATE LE BON - POMPEII

To the storied list of objects/people we associate with the Italian city of Pompeii – Vesuvius, rude antiquarian art, Frankie Howerd – we can now add Cate Le Bon’s new album of the same name, a magnificent collection of alt-pop gems from a master craftswoman. The intricately woven, melodically infectious compositions, which recall Scary Monsters-era Bowie, and even Prefab Sprout, mostly bely the heft of the lyrics, which take in the global pandemic and the climate emergency’s colliding eco-traumas, and Le Bon's interests in antiquity, philosophy, architecture, and the modalities of divinity. Written primarily on bass and composed entirely alone in an “uninterrupted vacuum”, Le Bon plays every instrument on Pompeii (except drums and saxophones), and recorded the album largely by herself and long-term collaborator and co-producer Samur Khouja in Cardiff, Wales. Up Pompeii!