Review
Genre and Mood
Metronomy’s The Bay is indie pop built from synth-pop parts, nostalgic and groovy, a carefree summer song from a band founded in Totnes, Devon. DIY heard in it the sound of a dance-inducing, retro-shades-sporting summer.
Song Summary
The Bay is the seventh track of The English Riviera, Metronomy’s third album, released by Because Music in April 2011, and became its third single on 10 June 2011. The English Riviera is the nickname of Torbay, and The Bay is the album’s most direct postcard from it: a song about a seaside place that insists, in its best-known line, on everywhere it is not. Joseph Mount wrote, produced and arranged it and plays most of it himself.
Musical Breakdown
The sources describe the song’s parts rather than their order, so this breakdown goes part by part.
Main Section: A One-Man Rhythm Section
Mount is credited with the drums, bass guitar, percussion and congas on this track, a groove Tone Deaf heard threatening to unleash a dancefloor pump.
The Synths: Jolting and Retro
DIY describes jolting synths and high-pitched harmonies; the credits name a Minimoog and an EDP Wasp, plus guitar, and Oscar Cash on saxophone.
The Hook: Not Paris, Not London
The hook is a list: this isn’t Paris, and it isn’t London, Berlin, Hong Kong or Tokyo, with a promise to take you back one day. DIY called the line as infectious as it comes.
Outro: The Release That Never Comes
Tone Deaf heard the song hold back from that dancefloor release and recoil into the album’s mood; no source describes the ending in more detail.
Concepts in Focus
The keyboards are an analog synthesizer sound. The Minimoog, from the early 1970s, and the small EDP Wasp make their tones from voltage-controlled circuits rather than samples or software, which gives them the warm, slightly unstable, retro colour that suits a song about an old-fashioned holiday coast.
The hook works by negation. Naming the great cities only to say this is none of them makes a small seaside town sound proud and a little absurd at once, and gives the listener a line to sing back.
The music video, directed by David Wilson, intersperses bird’s-eye views of Torbay with the band performing around Torquay. It won best editing at the Antville Music Video Awards and a D&AD Wood Pencil. The page plays the band’s own upload of the album version.
Artistic Context
Metronomy began as Joseph Mount’s bedroom project in Totnes, Devon. The English Riviera was the first album with bassist Olugbenga Adelekan and drummer Anna Prior in the band; NME later placed it second among the albums of 2011, and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Three years later came Metronomy – Love Letters (Soulwax Remix).
Impact and Reception
Critics split on the song itself. DIY called it the album’s centrepiece; Drowned in Sound heard a sequel to Holiday, the track most like the old Metronomy, the weakest thing on the album and still the equal of anything on Nights Out. The Bay was nominated for Best Dancefloor Filler at the 2012 NME Awards. Play it when the days get long.
