The Delgados are done with confrontation and hate at least musically—amodus operandi their last two albums were laden with—and want to showoff a lighter side, concentrating on harmonies and jangly guitars toget the point across and cause the spirits to rise. Universal Audio,then is the Delgados turned firm pop outfit, having fun and enjoyingevery moment, even in the most somber of tempos and dourest of keys.Recorded with Tony Doogan at their own Chem19 studios, these songs arefull of little treats of fancy as Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock tradeoff singing duties and fill it out with whatever strikes their fancy.Starting off is what may sound like fighting words drowned in brightguitars, but is actually a question of faith and what gets people intotheir situations. A little keys touch the point, and then the heavydrums return with perfect syncopation. At the chorus the song takesflight, and then the next verse takes it towards the sun, withdistorted madness accompanying a secondary vocal, harmonies, and therest of the instruments. Suddenly it's the indie rock wall-of-sound,though with the same intent of warming up the entire world with alittle bit of sunshine through a thick and layered pop sound. Eventhough the lyrics seem full of questions or self doubt, the band soundsas confident as ever in this sugar sweet head bob of a joy parade,until the fourth track, "Come Undone," a piano-led dirge with Pollock'smost plaintive and gorgeous vocal wailing "this is how it feels todrown, this is how we come undone." Brave and unrelenting, the albumcontinues, the songs an adventurous and captivating walk on new ground,the kind of record the Delgados have been threatening to make for along time with only one song crossing the five minute mark. There areno missteps or faltering moments to be found, no paltry fallacies orfacades of indie cred. It's just one solid block of good music with thebest of intentions. Others may talk of how it rates with the rest oftheir catalog, but it just plain doesn't. It transcends it all, andthough I may miss the direct assault of other records, this one doesthe trick just fine. Read More
