Latest Release
- JUL 28, 2023
- 19 Songs
- Suburban Light (Remastered) · 2000
- Strange Geometry · 2005
- Alone and Unreal: The Best of the Clientele (Deluxe Version) · 2000
- I Am Not There Anymore · 2023
- Suburban Light (Remastered) · 2000
- I Am Not There Anymore · 2023
- I Am Not There Anymore · 2023
- Suburban Light (Remastered) · 2000
- Suburban Light (Remastered) · 2000
- I Am Not There Anymore · 2023
Essential Albums
- The U.K.’s Clientele specialize in a somber melancholia that immediately conjures up the feeling of an afternoon tea observing an English rain. The band’s obvious key ‘60s influences — Left Banke, Marianne Faithfull, Beatles, Kinks — are set back and relaxed to loping rhythms that never feel the need to modernize or speed up to today’s technology. Instead, singer Alasdair MacLean recounts his aimless wanderings — the ever-present rain — with seductive melodies that have the same breezy feeling as the images that go fleeting past. Much like Trembling Blue Stars’ Robert Wratten, MacLean is a lovelorn slacker who uses music to create the romance that always seems to be slipping through his fingers. His group’s third album is higher-fi than the debut (Suburban Light) and less monochromatic than the follow-up (The Violet Hour). The addition of strings to the band’s mix of jangly guitars, pianos, and organs adds a soothing touch, as the austere beauty of “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” bears out.
- This remaster of The Clientele’s debut album, Suburban Light, features the original European track listing, with bonus material that includes covers, rehearsals, b-sides, and three previously unreleased songs. The original 2000 album consists of early singles recorded for a variety of indie labels. The initial idea for Suburban Light had been to rerecord some of those singles, along with others that had been demoed. But when the band attempted to work in high-end studios, they found the warmth they desired to be severely lacking, so they stuck with the lower-fi original recordings. The result was one of 2000's finest albums. This rerelease adds even more goodness, with songs such as “Porcelain” and “Monday’s Rain” presented in their "Portastudio" (home eight-track) versions and “Mary Has Brought a Change in You” being issued for the first time. Anyone who loves the sounds of Belle & Sebastian, The Apartments, Robyn Hitchcock, Trembling Blue Stars, and other somber Anglo-pop writers will feel right at home with this brilliant debut album, now expanded.
Albums
Music Videos
- 2007
Artist Playlists
- Reverb-heavy UK indie pop with an affinity for the ‘60s.
- Spectral lyricism and psych-pop guitars spanning myriad genres.
- The ethereal side of the psych-pop stalwarts.
Singles & EPs
- 2020
- 2007
- 2004
- 2002
About The Clientele
The Clientele are a guitar pop band who instantly came up with a sound that was all their own, hazy, autumnal, and sad with yearning vocals. arpeggiated guitars, and a calmly elastic rhythm section. Early albums like 2000's Suburban Light had roots in the morose chime of Galaxie 500 and Felt, but they had enough tenderly lush melodies of their own to escape sounding like a tribute band. As they grew musically, they seamlessly added elements to their core sound: strings on 2005's Strange Geometry, haunted folk on 2009's Bonfires on the Heath, world music on 2017's Music for the Age of Miracles. By the time of 2023's I Am Not There Anymore, they had expanded into jazz and avant-garde electronics without any of the melancholy charm and melodic grace they exhibited from the beginning.
- ORIGIN
- London, England
- FORMED
- 1997
- GENRE
- Alternative