Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

Miles Kane, lead singer of the Britpop band the Rascals joined forces with Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner to form The Last Shadow Puppets, a group whose music harks back to the keenly melodic symphonic pop of the 1960s. Kane and Turner cite early Bowie and Scott Walker among the influences for the Puppets, and those influences are prevalent, but one can hear even stronger traces of the Zombies and the Kinks.

The group's debut album, The Age of the Understatement, marries a '60s Britpop aesthetic to lush atmospherics and arrangements, the latter partly thanks to the London Metropolitan Orchestra and string arranger Owen Pallette. Highlights include "The Age of the Understatement", "Calm Like You" and "Standing Next to Me" but really the whole of this evocative, immediately likeable album merits repeated listens. The album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.

Heavyweight vinyl produced by Domino Recordings in 2008.