A superb farewell

Here's a glowing review of The Distractions’ third and final album, 'Kindly Leave The Stage', from Manuel Borrero in the Spanish magazine, Ruta 66.  We've just seen a follow-up interview piece with Steve Perrin and Nick Halliwell in this months' magazine, which we'll feature and translate soon.

THE DISTRACTIONS

Kindly Leave The Stage

Occultation

“I’m absolutely hooked on the final record by this now disbanded - amicably and innocently - combo who first stepped out in the turbulence of Manchester in 1980. Back in that dim and distant past, amidst all the upheaval of punk/new wave, they released their debut album, 'Nobody’s Perfect'. The follow-up took thirty-two years to arrive and was called 'The End of the Pier' and, by comparison with that temporal abyss it’s only taken them a few years to release what is their final goodbye, according to Mike Finney and Steve Perrin, who have always been the heart of the band. They say that resignation is the word that best sums up this finale, an outstanding group of ten songs breaking through the dark shadows rather like the weak sunshine of the first few days of spring. There’s a dense layer of intimacy to these tracks, sung up-close-and-personal, delicately wrapped in subtle instrumentation where the strings of the acoustic played by Perrin back Finney’s slightly soulish voice, with traces of forerunners such as Scott Walker and more recent comparisons like Edwyn Collins cutting through the arrangements of huge songs such as “The Fire” with its evocative whiff of the best British folk, the innocent atonement for sins detailed in “Talking to Myself” and the hidden happiness produced by “A Few Miles More”. A superb farewell. 

MANUEL BORRERO