It adds another fine collection of songs to her already impressive catalogue, songs whose inwardly-focused subject matter renders the music more restrained than the punky pop of career highlight Cyrk.
‘Mug Museum’, her third full-length, is as wonderfully weird as any of its predecessors. And there’s now sparseness in her music, plus a cool, controlled confidence that showcases her knack for the surreal more than ever.
Mug Museum emerges as another low-key intelligent pop gem from Le Bon.
It's barely been more than 18 months since CYRK, but she's managed to move her sound forward considerably in that time, while proving that she's in for the long haul with a concise and commanding third album.
Psychedelic leanings and Le Bon’s fragile Welsh lilt make ‘Mug Museum’ a typically unusual listen, but its sincerity shines throughout, finding beauty in the strangest, sometimes saddest of places.
Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon’s understated and modest third album, Mug Museum, is in part a lament to the erosion of memories, all told with remarkable detail.
While Mug Museum is probably Cate le Bon’s weakest collection of songs, it’s nonetheless a great refinement of her recent artistic development, a typically rewarding showcase of gutsy eccentricity, and the promise of more satisfying material to come.
Mug Museum will delight anybody with ears who enjoyed her previous outing, and while it may lack some of the focus of its predecessor, it retains every bit of its oddball charm.
While Mug Museum may seem more poignant, it does come at the expense of a lot of that appealling idiosyncracy.
The melancholy for which Cate's distinctive vocals works so well remains ... but the addition of wonderfully precise instrumentation acts as transformation.
Mug Museum lacks any sort of emotional dialogue with the listener.
Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum (2013)
9 year anniversary today (Released Nov. 12th 2013)
Have yet to hear a Cate Le Bon album that I haven't really enjoyed.
I Can't Help You - 73
Are You with Me Now? 78
Duke - 77
No God - 79
I Think I Knew - 73
Wild - 78
Sisters - 76
Mirror Me - 65
Cuckoo Through the Walls - 70
Mug Museum - 67
Cate Le Bon doesn't sound like anyone else currently writing music that I know of, let alone in her indie/singer-songwriter genre, and her off-kilter quirks and vocal flights of fancy come across as very organic. And she can do introspective and expressive just as well as she can do kooky, crafting a thoughtful and irresistible melody on "Are You With Me Now?" and nailing a surprisingly effective duet with the equally potent Perfume Genius on "I Think I Knew."
Favourite tracks: I Can't Help You, Are You With Me Now, No God, I Think I Knew, Wild, Sisters, Mug Museum
1 | I Can't Help You 4:00 | 100 |
2 | Are You With Me Now? 4:20 | 100 |
3 | Duke 3:49 | 100 |
4 | No God 4:38 | 100 |
5 | I Think I Knew 4:48 | 100 |
6 | Wild 3:28 | 100 |
7 | Sisters 4:05 | 100 |
8 | Mirror Me 3:48 | 100 |
9 | Cuckoo Through the Walls 5:29 | 100 |
10 | Mug Museum 3:44 | 100 |
#37 | / | MOJO |
#42 | / | NME |
#48 | / | Q Magazine |
#73 | / | Crack Magazine |