Despite their continuing success at home, Bell X1 are still in the ‘bubbling under’ category in the US. The last few albums have been all bells, whistles and Talking Heads-style stompers, but the quality of their output notwithstanding, the breakthrough has remained elusive.
And so, for this sixth studio album, the Dublin trio – Paul Noonan, Dave Geraghty and Dominic Philips (founding member Brian Crosby departed the fold in 2009) – have deliberately shrunk the palette. The synths and drum machines have mostly been unplugged, and it’s back to the core instrumental elements of guitar, bass, drum and piano. Rather than drowning their songs in sounds and effects, here they’re allowing them to breathe.
The title, Chop Chop, presumably refers to their fast – and consciously unfussy – approach to making the album. Recorded, mixed and mastered in just two weeks last January in Tarquin Studios, Connecticut, and produced by Peter Katis (best-known for his work with The National) and Thomas Bartlett, this soft, stripped-down and relatively short collection (nine songs in 37:22 minutes) is awash with impassioned vocals, reverb-tailed riffs, delicately layered rhythms and occasional brassy moments.
That this is a new approach is obvious from the sketchy percussion, tinkling ivories and falsetto vocals on the beautifully hypnotic first cut, the breath-taking ‘Starlings Over Brighton Pier’. ‘A Thousand Little Downers’ could have been written about the property tax (and may well have been), with Noonan crooning, “The radio says we gotta pay up by tonight.”
The music is often slow and wistful, rather than poppy and quirky. ‘Diorama’ and ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ are slow-burning ballads. The menacingly upbeat ‘I Will Follow You’ is one of the coolest things they’ve ever done. Always one of the more playfully literate bands, the cleverly-titled ‘Feint Praise’ sounds like the greatest track Otis Redding never sang.
Chop Chop closes with the weirdly celebratory ‘The End Is Nigh’. The music is a lot more jubilant than the apocalyptic lyrics: “Will it be a fireball from the sky?/ Or will we all take to the bed/ Laid low by a new pox?/ Or will the wrong guy get the codes?”
Hopefully none of the above. Especially seeing as this very fine album could well prove to be a bright new beginning for Bell X1.

Key Track: 'Motorcades'