The darkly stylish electronic/post-punk threesome Thieves Like Us are named for the 1984 New Order song (as opposed to the 1974 Robert Altman film), and they take more than just their moniker from Manchester’s darkly stylish electronic/post-punk pioneers. Their timely, ’80s-indebted approach has garnered comparisons to numerous dance-pop acts of the late 2000s, including Hot Chip and Crystal Castles, but their mix of gloom and glitter may be most closely aesthetically aligned with the seedy electro-disco revisionists of the Italians Do It Better axis (Glass Candy, the Chromatics), groups who employ the tools and techniques of dance music but seem more interested in evoking hazily decadent atmospheres than inspiring actual dancing. Swedes Pontus Berghe (drums) and Bjorn Berglund (keyboards) met American Andy Grier (vocals) in Berlin’s Mauer Park in 2002, and the trio began hitting the nightlife together, a gang of unregistered expats struggling with the language and culture of a foreign metropolis. Uninspired by the city’s techno-oriented club scene, they took matters into their own hands by DJ’ing together, and eventually starting to produce their own electronic music.
Tracklist
1. Free From the Ice
2. Für Judith
3. Get Me to the Kiss
4. When Tuesday Throws Rain at the Beach
5. The Small Blue One
6. Dreams of Malibu
7. Conrad's Or Saturn?
8. Beginning to Miss You
9. Make A Wish, Make It Now
10. Lasers Coming Back
11. The Singer's Song
12. A Little Too Easy