Chairlift live review
A mixed one, this. Three years since they last graced a UK stage, Chairlift tonight preview their terrific new album Moth, full of irresistible pop hooks and RnB sweetness, with varying success: album highlight Crying In Public allows singer Caroline Polachek to demonstrate the returns on her recent operatic training with a yearning melancholic glamour, and the LP’s title track retains its recorded counterpart’s thrilling pep.
Elsewhere though, there are clumsy false starts, awkward silences between songs as Patrick Wimberly frowns over unresponsive synths, and the set’s brevity – nine songs, no encore – hints at a sense of experimentation that isn’t entirely planned. “It’s only the fourth time we’ve ever played these songs,” pleads Polachek at one point, after another false start. On that basis, even tonight’s missteps are admirable, and the highs particularly impressive.
