Number 10 of 2004 — Client: City

Client’s second album City begins to show the origins of the band. Where the first album was metronomically clinical and cold, this album is metronomically clinical and slightly warmer. On first listen it appears that Client have decided that they want to play pop. In fact it might be that they wish they were back with Dubstar or Frazier Chorus. This becomes apparent on the opener Radio. Despite “Life is cruel and then you die” and “The world’s a mess on my TV” not to mention many other bitesize chunks of despair and boredom, it’s a song that buzzes along as merrily as a Client song can do. Particularly when the extended chorus comes in, trance like, and almost outstays its welcome. Come On takes this further with it’s repetition of the title. Later in the album, we get more dancefloor posing with Theme, an instrumental which nicks Toktok’s synths and turns them into a massive grooving growling throbbing animal. As such it’s quite a shock. I must admit I wondered what had happened to the Client I knew and loved last year. The saving grace is that the synths and electronics are bigger, better and more fierce but also more lush than previously. The overall effect does end up very engaging after a few listens.

Another clue to the direction Client want to go in are in the collaborations. It’s as if they’re losing direction. What shall we do? Do we want to be commercially successful, or do we want hip retro ‘kids’ to buy our music? So there’s the rent-a-collaboration of Carl and Peter from the now defunct Libertines, someone from Sneaker Pimps and touchstone Martin Gore. In the somewhat unnerving publicity shots, Client A and Client B now show their faces, so perhaps they think it’s time to explore.

Overdrive however takes this direction back to the beginning of Client. It’s a love or lust song, built around a wandering bass riff and swirling mechanical pads, with Martin Gore providing backing vocals. Which leads nicely on to the early 80s synth pop of One Day At A Time – a ‘proper’ song. Think Depeché Mode circa 1982, with key changes and everything. “I’m alive / You’re still on my mind / That’s my life”. It’s wonderful despite a slightly out of place neo-classical break. Don’t Call Me Baby is Client for those who like SEB (as she’s occasionally known. Oh, and by the way, that Busface single Circles is the bomb.) In It For The Money provides a harsh counterpoint to Everything Counts (“Just give me love / Just give me sex / Just give me money / Work hard / Why should I?”) and it’s a far more effective than most of the Riot Girrl shenanigans we heard years back.

Pornography, with Carl Barat’s vocal, is probably a Garbage song in disguise. “It’s you and me monogamy / Just you and me pornography”. Never in the world of pop has the lack of punctuation been so important. Nor indeed has a song title been so misleading. In fact, I’m pretty sure they were just looking for something to rhyme, then built a song around it. Down to the Underground, shows that Joy Division haven’t been forgotten.

There’s room for ballads too, mind. Opening with, and backed by a melodramatic string section, the story of the end of a relationship unfolds in The Chill of October. The album closes with the 2am feel of Everything Must End.

The best track however matches the Client of old and new. Essentially version 2 of Rock and Roll Machine from Client recreated as It’s Rock and Roll. The break before the chorus and the chorus itself is blinding. It’s Tori Amos: Piece by Piece wrapped up in one song. “It’s rock and roll. It’s in my soul. It’s rock and roll. It’s never ever gonna leave me.” Probably.

City is another of these albums I’ve been listening to which only reveal their riches after you’ve listened to them for some time. I actually rejected it completely when I first heard it. “Client, what have you done?!” I cried. Now I know. So come on.